October 2007 unloaded a bunch of new Apple products upon us, including the iPod Touch and iPod nano, and refreshes for the iPod shuffle and the rebranding of the iPod to the iPod classic. Apple has always been on the cutting edge when it comes to the inclusion of new technology into their computers, their last significant breakthrough being LED backlights instead of the traditional fluorescent tubes. Presently, it's only the pro-level MacBook Pros that have this feature; and I expect the next generation of MacBooks to have it as well. The designs of the Macs haven't changed for years -- The MacPro is still housed in the PowerMac G5 cheese grater shell, while the MacBook Pro can still be mistaken for a previous generation Powerbook G4.
Apple has demonstrated with the iPhone that they can make touch computing work on a cellphone, but can it possibly translate to that of personal computers? How about instead of having a keyboard, there's a touch sensitive keyboard instead? There are problems, of course, touching a flat LCD screen doesn't have the tactility of a real plastic keyboard, and then there's the cost of making a touch sensitive keyboard as large as a laptop screen.
A smaller sized device (MacBook nano, anyone?) utilizing the latest in technology such as a solid state drive would be possible to build -- but is there a market for a small ultra-portable touch-based laptop? I believe that Apple may be moving in the other direction -- instead of concentrating on touch computing for their laptop lines, touch may actually arrive on the desktops first. It has been some time since Apple updated their Cinema displays, and adding touch to computers that don't require it would be a good step for them in terms of a revision one release. After the technology is proven and the kinks ironed out, then we'd see release on the laptops that would rely on this technology. (Most likely with OS X 10.6, whatever that might be). The idea of a small ultra-portable is not lost on Apple; with ASUS' eeePC eating up the market, Apple needs to have a ultraportable out there.
Apple rentals. This one is a given. After Jobs' demo on how to make a ringtone for your iPhone, expect a similar demonstration for how to rent a movie from the iTunes store, as well as how to convert it to a permanent movie. Expect more integration of iTunes and AppleTV, possibly even using the iPod touch/iPhone as a control device for AppleTV. One can also expect Apple to announce the new ability of discs to have iPod/iTunes ready content prepared to make downloading video to your iPod easier.
Blu-ray. I expect Jobs to formally annouce Blu-ray support for the Mac platform. Jobs had a Sony rep walk on stage two years ago, and for what purpose? Just to promote HD video support for Quicktime? I think there's a bit more to it than that.
iPhone SDK: due out in February, I'm sure Jobs wants to give us a short demo on what it can do.
iPhone flip. This one comes from my own private wishlist -- but a clamshell based iPhone is going to sell better than a slate-style phone -- this is especially true for people who throw their cellphones around or put there cellphones in places that scratch things up.
iPhone Home. A landline based iPhone/Answering Machine. While I'd like to believe that most of the people out there have cellphones, there's a bunch of people out there whose phones never leave the house. But how cool would it be to be able to surf the web and talk on the phone at the same time? Besides, Apple made the iPod HiFi, why not an iPhone Home?
I think it's still too early for Apple to set up themselves for an eReader, but given that Amazon is one of their major competitors, it would not surprise me if Apple managed to set up a deal with some book publishers to make their content readable on an iPod.
Anything related to imaging and Aperture, I suspect will be held off until the PMA in late January, and as MacWorld grows bigger every year, there is less emphasis on Mac, and more on Apple. Last year, the vendors were definitely more on showcasing iPod cases and peripherals than anything else at the show, and I think we'll see a lot of iPhone cases and accessories this time around.
Leave a comment