by Playfuls Staff |
6th January 2007
With the CES 2007 clearly outshining the Macworld Expo in novelties, I think probably Apple will skip the important announcements we are all expecting at this year's Macworld Expo.[more]
It's simply logical to consider that Apple is somehow forced to re-think its strategy for this important event, due to the rescheduling of Consumer Electronics Show. Macworld is usually an occasion for the Cupertino-based company to gain media attention and to tease the fans' imagination, and since the Macintosh event coincides with the CES, it's unclear which event will be most favored by the press.
This is the reason for which I think that at MacWorld 2007 Apple will unveil something focused rather on not disappointing investors and share holder, rather than bringing enthusiasm to end-users' mind.
Apple's shares have suffered a lot lately after Forrester let loose a misinterpreted study about the declining iTunes sales, and after Steve Jobs himself was accused of wrong-doing in a scandal about the company's shares (eventually his name was cleared out, but the stocks plunged). MacWorld would have been a great opportunity but… not with CES competing for media's attention.
Someone might think that if Apple brings up something revolutionary and unexpected at MacWorld 2007, they might even surpass CES in audience and the booming effect of the news could strengthen Jobs' status of "ever-surprising company savior". That would be risky though.
We are talking about a Consumer Electronics Show where IBM returns after 10 years, and where industry behemoths like Sony, Intel, Microsoft or Matsushita Electric are presenting their best hoping to shape the future. Even the long-rumored iPhone or a hypothetical Apple gaming console would find it difficult to gain public's eyes among the jewels shining at CES. Instead, Apple might just offer important clues or previews to what's yet to come, and a few eye-candies to please the paying audience and attract some press attention.
Back in August at WWDC, Jobs has unveiled first infos about the iTV and about Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard , dubbed Vista 2.0. Sure, the WWDC didn't compete with any other important event so Apple did get all the attention for Leopard and the new iPods.
What exactly are Mac-fans and others eagerly awaiting? The iTV has already been mentioned. Apparently, it will cost $299 and we should see it on sale by the end of the first quarter of this year.
Of course, one of the central themes will be the Leopard OS, triumphantly named Vista 2.0 because of its technological advancement compared to Microsoft's flagship product. The Intel-transition has clearly shown its results for Apple and by the end of third fiscal quarter of 2006, sales of Macintosh PCs have grown nearly 20 percent to $1.9 billion. Analysts consider that Apple's next move will be to have quad-core based Mac desktop powered by Intel, after the PowerMac G5 was replaced in August with Dual Core Xeons 5100.
A late rumor is that Apple will unveil a 12-inch widescreen laptop (perhaps called Macbook Thin) that's too light and small to even have an optical drive or traditional hard drive.
And don't forget the iPod or the iTunes. Now that Apple's iTunes Music Store has found success with movie and TV downloads, there is speculation that Apple has a so-called true video iPod ready to go.
The device could have the screen covering the entire front of the device, and controls would appear on screen when touched with a finger.
An even more recent update shows that Apple is going to announce a storage upgrade for iDisk. In Windows, the iDisk storage capacity is over 30GB (over 30000MB), but in Finder in MacOSX it is only 128MB big.
But let’s wait and see what really Apple will announce.
