Koby’s MacWorld 2008 Predicitions

Posted by Michael Koby

January 14, 2008 |

So tomorrow the MacWorld keynote takes place and everyone is going to be either attending or hitting one of the many sites offering “live from the keynote” updates (see Engadget). MacWorld has, for the past few years been where Steve Jobs makes some of his cooler announcements, so it is totally understandable why people are excitedly awaiting the start of the keynote.

For the first time, I present to you my predictions for MacWorld:

iPhone - Apple has a winner in the iPhone and everyone is expecting some form of news around the device. I expect that at the very least we will see some cool firmware updates and at most we’ll see the release of the 2nd generation device. I think that the release of the second generation iPhone is possible, but it might be simply an announcement with a release later in the year (similar to the original iPhone announcement). As for firmware updates, I expect that the release of the firmware updates that have been rumored for the past 2 weeks will see the light of day (cut & paste, multiple contact SMS, etc). Also, possibly expect a 16GB iPhone.
MacBook Tablet - The rumors have been circulating for this one for a little while but, in the recent Wired iPhone article there is mention of a engineers working on a tablet device and telling Steve that they could get the interface to work on a phone. I expect this will device to be announced. Another reason to think this device will be announced is due to the release of last week’s 8-Core MacPro and XServe servers. It’s MACworld so we need some Mac related releases
Several people have pointed out that Apple’s Cinema Displays are up for a refresh. While this will more then likely be announced, I expect it to be in passing.
I would not expect much iPod news. They just released (back in September) a new iPod line. I would not expect major changes to these devices. At most expect a firmware update
Finally, iTunes Movie Rentals. I think that this is going to be one of the 2 main points of the keynote (the first being the MacBook tablet). There are confirmed rumors on this front, and usually Steve will announce even if things aren’t finalized (see iPhone announcement), if only to steal the thunder from the bloggers. If this is announced, you can expect that the iTunes movies being included on DVD-Rom content of DVD video movies to be included.

There you have it, Michael Koby’s predictions for MacWorld 2008. Be back tomorrow when we will take a look at what I got right and wrong, as well as to commentary on the official announcements.

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