About this time, over in Cupertino, the team that handles the keynote gets together… actually it starts anywhere from 90 to 60 days from the day of the big show. Now, lots of people will tell you what is coming to Macworld Expo the week/day/hour before the big show… I’m going to lay out the options long before any decisions are made. It doesn’t bother the folks in Cupertino as much, and it makes being half-right-half-wrong a lot more respectable.
So, here’s the list…
Video on Demand, the iTunes Movie Rental Store. – A lock
iTunes adds HD support to reboot sluggish Apple TV sales – Probable
– On a related note, Apple may push Leopard Embedded to Apple TV – Possible
Sun to take on Java development for Mac OS X – Possible
iPhone Firmware 2.0, SDK, and related improvements – A lock (for demoing, that is)
Leopard minor update – Probable
MacBook mini or MacBook Pro 12-inch – Probable
Mac mini II or Mac nano (merging Apple TV and Mac mini hardware to cut costs) – Probable
What else? Possible adoption of eSATA (maybe), Online Time Machine (maybe), Hard Drive-based iPhone/iPod touch (maybe, online-only niche), Xserve refresh (probable, if it doesn’t happen pre-show).