Another reputable news organization is reporting independent confirmation that Apple plans to launch a netbook with a touchscreen as early as the second half of this year, while a prominent tech blogger shares some interesting analysis that the device will be a keyboardless tablet.Dow Jones Newswires says that "two people close to the situation" told them that the device is coming as early as the second half of 2009, with displays that are 9.7 to 10 inches. Apple is working with Wintek Corp. of Taiwan, a contract manufacturer of small and medium-sized displays, and Quanta Computer, the world's largest-revenue notebook maker, for assembly.

The Dow Jones report comes on top of an earlier article from DigiTimes saying pretty much the same thing.

Meanwhile, blogger Om Malik analyzes why the netbook will be a no-keyboard touchscreen device -- a jumbo iPod Touch.

Just as it redefined the MP3 player experience (with iPod) and reinvented the smartphone (with iPhone), Apple is going to pursue the netbook opportunity. But it won't be with anything like the cheap, anorexic laptops being sold as netbooks today.

When Apple COO Time Cook was asked about netbooks during his conference call with analysts in February 2009, he said that the company was "watching the space," but he dismissed the idea of offering a device that had "smaller screens, cramped keyboard." In other words, if Apple does make a device that sits between an iPod touch/iPhone and a laptop, then it would mostly likely be a touchscreen device.

Other pieces of the puzzle, says Malik: The user interface of the Safari 4.0 beta, and improved Apple Apple Web applications.

Also, keyboardless Internet devices are becoming mainstream, Malik notes. Devices like the Amazon Kindle will permit the emergence of new kinds of media consumption, including multimedia and interactive newspapers and books. (The Kindle has a keyboard -- but it's awful, suited to one-finger hunt-and-peck and nothing more. Seriously, many people think the iPhone keyboard is bad -- if you're one of those people, try the Kindle for a taste of what a really bad keyboard looks like.)

And a new generation of children is growing up that views keyboardless Internet devices as the norm, says Malik, crediting the insight to the Onda blog.

In addition to the reasons cited by Malik and the Onda, other trends are pushing Apple toward a netbook. Netbooks and the economic downturn are gutting the PC market, including desktop Mac sales, and the sweet spot for pricing on desktops and notebooks is dropping precipitously. Apple always has resisted pricing peer pressure -- but will it be able to resist this time?

Moreover, the iPhone, the iPod line -- particularly the iPod Touch -- and the App Store point to a new kind of computing experience for Apple, one where the company controls the applications users can install on their machines. Users will get greater stability and automatic backups for their new class of devices, but there's a trade-off in that a closed business model stifles innovation.