Apple’s next product announcement predictions
The 2010 MacWorld Expo is going to take place this year from February 11-13. Apple stated after last year’s Expo they would no longer formally be participating in this event, which in the past few years has been one of the key dates for new product announcements.
However, the internet rumor mill has been going and it appears that Apple will be having a product unveiling on January 26th in San Francisco.
After looking over the recent history of announcements at MacWorld, I think we can expect several things, but exactly what they will be is just speculation at this point. Some possibilities:
Apple Tablet/iSlate – There are just too many rumors for this not to come along eventually. With several other companies pre-announcing theirs, or planning to at CES, Apple should do it sometime this year, and this is probably the best time so they can still have X months to actually finish the device like they did with the initial iPhone.
Apple TV update – If it’s another incremental update like they did a few months ago, I don’t think this will be the stage for it. However, if they’ve made progress with the rumored subscription service for network stations, that may be the announcement. I would guess a hardware upgrade would be in the cards as well.
Macbook Pro update – Other than new processors (CPU/GPU) and spec bumps, I don’t see a major update coming to the Macbook line. While I was hoping they’d announce something in January so I could buy one myself, the i5 and i7 mobile processors might not yet be up to snuff, therefore this bump could get pushed back to Spring or Summer.
iPhone 4 – The original iPhone was announced at MacWorld in 2007, but the updates since then have been announced in the Summer. I don’t think this year will be any different.
iPhone OS 4.0 – This is likely. I’m not sure what additional software features they can add to the phone at this point, as most of the necessary functionality has been added. I would guess more media updates and integration, especially if the deal with the major networks gets announced. Streaming/downloading to your phone will probably be slightly different than it is now. Perhaps some more corporate integration for business use.
Verizon agreement – I don’t think this one is really in the cards either. At least not now. Though the terms of the agreement with AT&T have never been made public, all signs point to a Summer 2010 end date. At that point, I believe the announcement/release of the iPhone 4 will go in tandem with this for a Fall release. Not sure if they’ll have the LTE chips ready by then, but I would guess not. Too much cost for a network that is still over a year from decent market saturation.
I wouldn’t bet money on any of these announcements, but the ones I would predict for this rumored event are the Apple Tablet and something related to the Apple TV. Obviously that would require an iTunes update, which will also be in play, but maybe not a full version update.
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