MacWorld Predictions, Rumors, and Alliteration

The following follow-up is a list of all the MacWorld (this is the exact point in my blog entry where Sarah stops reading) rumors that I’ve been hearing about, and my personal evaluation of their accuracy. I realize, oh faithful reader(s), that you don’t care about this at all. Well damnit… I do. And, it will be fun to see how open my third eye is. My previous precognitive prediction proved to be profoundly pretentious (yea for alliteration!). Er… I was totally wrong. Second time’s a charm.

Flash-memory based iPod

Prediction: Probably

Reasoning: Apple needs this to keep their iPod line competitive across the board

Hardware Audio Interface (a.k.a. Asteroid?)

Prediction: Not likely

Reasoning: I just don’t see a big enough market for it. It’s more of a third-party, niche type of product. This device strays way too far from Apple’s product line… Although, so did the iPod at the time of it’s introduction…

iWork Office Productivity Suite

Prediction: Probably

Reasoning: In order to completely sever ties with Microsoft, Apple needs an app that will kick Office to the curb. There has been speculation in the past however, that Apple and Microsoft have some kind of unwritten, no competition contract concerning the Office product line. I don’t know if Apple can pull it off though. I hate to admit it, but Office is robust and usable… for a Microsoft product anyway.

$499 Headless iMac (a.k.a. the iHome)

Prediction: Probably

Reasoning: This would put the Mac in the entry level, first computer buyer category. It might make consumers think twice about that crappy-ass Dell and take another look at that slick Apple machine.

iPhone

Prediction: Not a chance in hell

Reasoning: Despite the adamant claims/rumors of people in the field and technical reports, I just don’t think that Apple would ever want to take the plunge into the cell phone market. It’s too unpredictable and unstable for Apple. What is likely however, is an iTunes integrated cell fone of some sort (we’ve seen pics already… but we’ll only know for sure after tomorrow’s keynote). That seems reasonable. But I doubt that we’ll ever see an Apple branded cell phone.

Did I miss anything? Well, aside from the inevitable software updates and processor upgrades, I think that’s it.

So what makes me such an authority. Well nothing really. I’m just a fan of the company and the product. I’ve watched the market and I’ve seen the consumer response. You can almost pick out patterns and predict the future if you watch closely enough. With Apple however, you never really know what’s going to happen. Sometimes they pull something out of their ass (like the iPod) that no one expects and no one has done [successfully] yet.

On a side note, I would love to see the rebirth of the Newton. Or rather, some kind of iPod sized pda device. Hard drive based, Firewire, Bluetooth, maybe wifi, highly integrated into the OS X experience… that would rock my digital world.