MacRecon > What does 2007 hold for Apple?

The last couple of years have been pretty good for Apple, mainly due because of the iPod’s full-blown success. But this year, Apple’s transition to Intel chips is complete — and public interest has never been higher. People are basically begging for an iPhone. The next-gen OS X has been demoed. And the iPod’s success shows no indication of slowing down. Could next year be one of the best for Apple? Here’s a sneak-peak of what kind of Apple products may find a new home with you this coming year.

Mac OS X “Leopard” 10.5
The new Universal, 64 bit-enabled OS will come to the Mac next year. And what’s a new Mac OS without any new features and improvements to make our lives more joyful? Amongst the most talked-about new features are: Core Animation, which will take advantage of newer Macs for amazing visual technologies; Spaces, which will let you access multiple desktops using one monitor; Dashboard 2.0, with new widget technologies; Front Row 2.0, where details are scarce; Time Machine, which will make backups hassle-free, efficient, and a breeze to revert to; and new versions of Mail, iCal, iChat, and other included apps. Knowing Apple’s timing, it’s most likely that this new OS will come out late next year at about $130. But it’s always worth it, especially when there’s those rumors of a brand-new Finder in the works.

Codename: iTV.
This is the only piece of new hardware that’s 100% confirmed to come out next year. This will supposedly change the way we see TV, because all your computer’s media will wirelessly travel to this device that’ll be hooked up to any TV. And when “any TV” is mentioned, they mean it — composite, S-video, even HDMI (for HD content, huzzah!) connections are planned for this box that’s about half the size of a Mac mini. But besides media streaming, other functions are unknown. It’s speculated that it might just be the missing link between your computer and the TV, but it looks pretty much like an obvious choice for Steve Jobs to talk about at San Francisco’s MacWorld this January. It’s expected early next year at an estimated price of $300.

MacBook Pro “Slim”.
With the exclusion of a 12-inch MacBook Pro model, some of the road warriors have been less than happy. But can you really blame Apple? Especially when they probably have a good reason… there’s rumblings about the return of the 12-inch model, which will be slimmer than ever, and pack the power of its bigger 15-inch brother! It’s expected for an announcement during or slightly after MacWorld San Francisco, with a price around $1700.

Tablet Mac.
Who hasn’t dreamed of a Tablet Mac? The first concrete evidence about it is that Apple is preparing a specialized version of Mac OS X built for touch screen interactivity. But whether it will see the light of day or not, that’s another issue. But does anyone else think that if a 10-inch model where to surface for about the same price of a low-end MacBook, that would be perfect?

iPhone.
Perhaps the most talked-about, non-existent, Apple product. But this one’s a no-brainer… the perfect implementation of cell phone, PDA, and iPod functionality. In fact, there’s been an increased activity with everything surrounding the iPhone — now it’s expected for a January announcement. Whether it’s shown at MacWorld or after (or never, knowing Apple), that’s the real mystery. It’s speculated that two models will exist: one with 4 gigs and the other with 8 gigs, at $250 and $450 respectively. You can continue reading how the iPhone will be according to Kevin Rose right here.

The real video iPod.
Another product that’s been speculated for quite a while. This one will be the same size of today’s video iPods, only that the whole thing will be a wide touch-screen with full 480p resolution. The idea of a virtual click wheel isn’t too farfetched, either. In fact, an iPod like this makes perfect sense for the next upgrade. It was told that it was expected for the end of this year, but because of technical difficulties Apple had to start from scratch with the project. Now, next year sound fine — if ever.

iTunes.
When negotiations with other movie studios are nearly complete, of course we can expect for more movies to show themselves for download at Apple’s incredibly-popular download service. And iTunes 8 for when the next iPod comes out.

Macs.
Of course we can expect upgrades on the current Mac lineup. And there’s no doubt about it: the Macs will sell even better in 2007, now that the public knows they run Windows, too. In fact, more than 50% of students are now considering Macs, for starters.

That’s it. This covers most of the important stuff that’s expected to hit next year. But remember, these products aren’t real until Steve Jobs says otherwise, so for the moment, we can only hold our breath for them.

This post is part of ProBlogger’s latest group writing project.

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[tags]Apple,Mac,iPod,iTunes,iPhone,Hardware,Software[/tags]