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Apple’s chief operating officer said that the company is unconcerned not with marketshare, but with quality.

“Our goal is not to build the most computers; it’s to build the best,” Cook told analysts during a conference call.

And that is not possible at the £200 to £400 price point commanded by netbooks such as the Intel Classmate [pictured].

“As I’ve said before and I think this is playing out in several areas, I think some customers, maybe many customers buying these are—become disappointed and disenchanted after they buy one of these,” Cook said.

“I think some of the netbooks that are being delivered or many of those are …

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very slow. They have software technology that is old. They don’t have a robust computing experience. They lack horsepower. They have small displays and cramped keyboards—you know, I could go on and on but I won’t,” he said.

“And so that kind of thing I think many people will not be happy with and we are only going to play in things where we can deliver something that is very innovative that we are very proud of.”

Cook said that Apple customers want a fully featured notebook and that is borne out by Apple’s long sequence of industry-beating financial results

“When you look at being now able to buy a Macbook Pro for $800 less than someone could have done in October of last year, it’s just jaw-dropping. And so we feel very good about our strategy and our pricing and I think frankly the results bear it out. If you look at it now, we’ve now—the Mac has outrun the market a staggering 18 of the last 19 quarters, and I think that really says that we do have the right approach.”

Cook refused to be drawn on whether Apple is building some kind of touchscreen, tablet device

“I never want to discount anything in the future and never want to specifically answer a question on new products,” he said.