3.
Jan 12, 2008 1:04 PM
in response to:
esteban
Re: new products predictions
Here are my predictions
iPhone Announcements
I expect to hear more about the SDK coming out in February and Steve will probably demo a few apps. I also think there's a good chance that Steve will announce the 3G iPhone to be shipping in June. He probably won't give many details about the product in the hopes of not hurting sales for the current version. In the mean time, he might up the standard memory in the existing iPhone to 16GB in order to tide us over until the next generation is released.
Apple TV and Movie Rentals
Movie rentals seems like a given based on the recent news. Along with this, I expect to see a new Apple TV. While I would love to see the Mac Mini and the Apple TV morphed into a single product, I doubt we'll see this happen. Instead, the Apple TV will probably gain some new features and hopefully come with an optical drive.
Cinema Displays
It's strange that Apple didn't update its Cinema Displays with the new Mac Pro release. It seems obvious to me that the Cinema Displays are in need of an update that will include a built in iSight camera and be offered in higher resolutions. Macworld seems like an odd place to release new displays unless the announcement is bigger than expected. For example, maybe Apple intends to offer a much wider range of displays including some larger TV sized models.
Laptops
While I think it's possible that Apple's laptop line will be updated with the new Penryn chips, I don't think Apple is quite ready to do this. The chips just came out a week or two ago. It took Apple several months to release new Mac Pros after the Penryn Workstation chips were released in November. I suspect Apple will take a few months to work on the new Macbook Pros, which will probably see the Penryn chips before the Macbooks. At that time, I expect to see a substantial notebook upgrade for the Macbook Pros, which might include changes to the case design. Hopefully they will also be offered with Nvidia's new 8800GT mobile graphics cards.
"Mac Touch"
I don't know what it will be called, but I think Apple will release something larger than the iPhone with more PDA capabilities. It will be based on flash memory and won't include an optical drive. It will offer multi-touch capabilities and be sold with a docking station. I'd say the chances of this happening are probably 30% to 40%. It's always seemed odd to me that Apple would release a separate PDA-like device from the iPhone instead of simply incorporating more advanced PDA capabilities into the iPhone. On the other hand, people have been talking about this product for a long time and Apple does need to announce something "big" at the event. I don't think upgrades to existing products is going to cut it.
Mid Range Mac Tower
Please apple!!!! The new Mac Pros are wicked awesome but they are simply too expensive for most people. As the gap between the Mac Pro and the iMac continues to dramatically increase, a new computer is really needed to fill the hole. There are a lot of people in the "gap" right now and they are looking for an Apple tower that would be smaller than the Mac Pro, cost $2,000 or less, and be relatively expandable. I don't think Apple will deliver this product at Macworld but I will keep pleading until the do!
Well, that's it. We'll see what really happens next Tuesday!
Peace - Evan Stumpges - MacBook Pro 2.5GHz - Leopard
(I.E. iPhone)
