With a little over a month to go on MacWorld 2008, speculation has already started about what Apple will choose to reveal at the Apple-centered conference in mid-January. The top contender is an ultra-portable MacBook. In fact, since December of 2005, the rumor of a Mac ultra-portable has been on analysts predicition lists, but has never materialized at MacWorld.
With a completely new lineup of iPods having just been announced in September, it is highly unlikely for Apple to make any new announcement of iPod related products at MW2008.
In June of 2005, Apple announced the transition to Intel. In January of 2006, Apple moved their first computers to Intel with the MacBook Pro and the iMac. This announcement led to consumer frustration from those who had purchased new computers the previous holiday season, and in January of 2007, MacWorld came and went without announcements of new computers or new iPods, and instead focused on introducing new products. Such a strategy does open up the possibility for new computer types, such as the Mac mini (which was announced at MacWorld 2005) as well as completely new device types, such as the Apple TV and the iPhone (both premiered at MacWorld 2007).
One thing which hasn't seen a lot of coverage at MacWorld has been Apple's iTunes service -- they've instead chosen smaller venues to coincide with announcements about new product offerings on iTunes, but I believe that MacWorld 2008 might see the announcement of Apple's iTunes media rental service (which has already been revealed as a future possibility within iTunes). The release of an official iPhone development kit in February also lends some validity to this theory, as you would not want developers stumbling across this feature and confirming such functionality before an official announcement could be made. A video rental service would also provide a boost to Apple's lagging Apple TV product.
There are some that predict that MacWorld 2008 will unveil a 3G iPhone. While I definitely believe that to be a possibility, I think that such a product is already expected and will not make the kind of impact that Steve Jobs and Apple usually like to have in a keynote announcement. At the same time, I can't help feeling that MacWorld 2008 will be the MacWorld of the iPhone, so maybe an expansion of the iPhone line-up with a smaller cheaper iPhone? The possibility of this ties in perfectly with the release of the iPhone SDK in February.
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