With MacWorld San Francisco mere days away, I feel compelled that I have to weigh in with some predictions about what we'll be seeing...
So,
iLife '07 & iWork '07 - dead certain, Amazon jumped the gun on them already and rescinded the listings when Apple coughed at them. 100% certainty for MWSF
OSX 10.5 Leopard - will be demonstrated, a release date might be announced, I'd be AMAZED if that were before April however. Also, Steve Jobs will say boom a lot.
Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo inside - I'd give this one pretty high odds, everything else in the lineup is Core 2 based, using either Woodcrest or Merom already. 80% odds for MWSF, 100% odds for the month of January.
New iSights - the old ones (one of which I've got) have been phased out due to non-compliance with some new EU regulations, although the "Macs In The Middle" all have integrated isights now, the very bottom and very top of the range machines don't (that'd be the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro), so I'm sort of expecting a new and snazzy replacement for them, I'll give this one a 50% chance.
Mac Pro Octacore - Intel are shoveling DualDual Core Xeons (Cloverton) out the door at this point, but MWSF is a consumer orientated show, whilst we may see these before the end of January, I'd be really surprised if they were announced in the keynote speech, 15% chance, and I'm being generous.
Apples "iTV" - May be given a new name that doesn't clash with a TV network, may have more features announced, might even be fully announced, given the pressure Microsoft just put on it with the Xbox 360's future IPTV leanings. 40% chance. possibly!
Core2Duo Cube - Apple are not, as of yet, using Conroe in their lineup, anywhere. and it's just begging for a resurrected Cube to be built around it.
Come on Apple, give me 2.93Ghz C2D, a SATA harddisk bay, a PCI-E graphics card and a case that's roughly the size of the original Cube, at a price that isn't 90% of the way to a Mac Pro,which was, in my view the major cause of the original Cubes downfall, proximity in price to the PowerMac, and I'm sold. I'll even let you off if you actively cool it!
Sadly, I'm not so sure Apple want me to give them my money totally readily, and so I'm going to give this one outside odds, 5% chance of me selling a kidney to acquire one.
addendum:
Somehow the much murmured about iPod phone managed to slip my mind, and on that front, I'm pretty convinced it exists at this point, but I'd expect it to get its own launch event, and as such, I give it a 20% chance of showing up at MWSF.
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My predictions based on a discussion at work last Thursday:
Numbers - an Excel-like applicated joins Pages and Keynote in iWork 07
MacBook Pro - an ultra portable 10-12" widescreen model joins the lineup
Phone - Don't count on this one, but if such a thing does exist, it'll be less a phone with iTunes playback and more an iPod with calling capability. Prove me wrong.
iPod - Apple just held an iPod special event in October to announce the new Shuffle and Nano. The 5th gen iPod is held over from last year, so that's the obvious choice for replacement, but I don't see it happening so soon after the holidays. When the true iPod successor appears, I expect it to get its own event.
Mac mini - A Core 2 Duo upgrade is almost certain (as the Mac mini models from last year already support Core 2 Duos).
Mac Pro - The eight core Mac Pro is as certain as the Mac mini upgrade for the same reason.
Leopard / Server - We'll hear all sorts of information about 10.5 & 10.5 Server as well as a final shipping date for March.
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