aaron evans

Expectations are high about what Apple will announce at Macworld. Apple followers want to be surprised and impressed with new products at every conference but Apple only needs to release new products at a rather coarse interval to be successful. Having said that, I think that Apple will use this Macworld to release products that reveal their long-term strategy. In other words, I think this one is going to be big.

It’s also been rumored that Apple has held back new products only a short time before a keynote. The small details that prevent or delay a product’s release make it very difficult to predict Apple keynote product releases with any accuracy.

Having made all of those qualifications, here are my predictions:

1. New Finder in Leopard: Apple’s Finder will be significantly improved. This rumor has been repeated ad nauseam since 10.0 but I think this is the year. Apple has already stated that there are unannounced features in Leopard and Apple will need to put those features into developer’s hands to really test the code. Thus, Leopard won’t be in consumers hands until June.
2. iPhone: Everyone is expecting this and I think it will happen at Macworld. This is Apple’s biggest new product since the iPod. There is always the possibility that it gets pushed to a special event in February if it’s not quite ready yet. I feel like it’s been a while since there’s been an impressive “One More Thing”. This could be it.
3. Apple Google Partnership: If the iPhone happens, I already blogged about why I think this will happen.
4. iTV: If #3 happens, maybe we’ll see some Google content (YouTube) show up on iTV. People expect new features to be announced for iTV.
5. iWork and iLife Updates: It isn’t really a prediction if it’s certainly going to happen.

Less Sure Possibilities

1. New Towers Intel has 4-core chips and Apple could put two in a tower. Who could possibly use all 8 cores at the same time with the exception of possibly a few video editors?
2. New Displays Maybe Apple will release DRM’d displays using some new-fangled post-DVI connector and built-in iSight. Apple no longer sells an iSight. Maybe there’s a reason? Maybe not.
3. New iMacs They’re due but this could wait.
4. MacBook Thin It could happen; but won’t Apple wait until demand drops for the MacBook and MacBook Pro before adding a new model at the $1800 range?

My MacWorld looks pretty light on hardware updates and pretty full of new products. I’m excited.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.