With sales of pricey Macs sputtering, Apple may be looking at the emerging netbook market to kick-start business. Rumors of an Apple netbook-like product in the works gained steamed last week after leaks surfaced that Apple bought 10-inch touchscreens from a Taiwanese manufacturer.

[ Mac engineers lament . | Recent for CIOs. ]

"A product like this can appeal to the markets that Apple has never been good at," such as countries where Apple computers have little presence, says . "A big, clamshell version of the can get Apple into lower-cost markets."

There's no question that cost-conscience companies and consumers are hedging their bets when it comes to buying Macs. Market researcher reported that last month, while overall PC sales rose by 22 percent, spurred by strong sales of the revolutionary low-cost netbooks.

Netbooks, which started out as low-cost education PCs, began expanding into other markets last year. That success has no doubt caught Apple's eye. "Apple likes to see a large market with a high degree of differentiation, come in and command it," Dulaney says.