Speculation on those great products to come this year.

The conference call mentioned again great products to come this year. While we certainly hear that every year, it thought it might be interesting to speculate on other products. So here is a list:

1. A sub 7" iPad/iPod.
2. A 12" iPad.
3. Other iOS devices, including a replacement for the iPod Touch.
4. A midrange desktop, dare I say XMac.
5. A new Apple TV with the ability to run apps.
6. New routers.
7. The very much desired 15" AIR
8. A new compact server, media PC.

Just a quick list to get the discussion started.

I think the obvious move for Apple is to find a rational way to expand the iOS devices line up. That means in this context new tablets with a likely emphasis on an iPad with an approximate 12" screen. IPad is really rocking the tablet market and I see Apple leveraging their lead to cover people with different needs.

Along the same lines I'm expecting the iPhone 4S form factor to stay around for a bit. The line up will be supplemented with a 4G capable device in a different form factor.

The other obvious thing here is that the desktop line up needs help. To that end I expect them to drop both the current Mini and the Pro to introduce a more common platform to cover a wider array of needs. It is good that the laptops are pulling the majority of sales but they needs a viable platform to capture and keep the desktop market. Thus the XMAC.

I also have to wonder about what Apple will do outside its current markets. Very little was said about an Apple TV. I'm actually thinking that Apple might go after a different segment for example robotics. Robotics is a very long term play but there is huge upside potential.

That is a given. What I'm thinking we will see is totally new hardware to go along with iPad3 in the current form factor. Let's face it iOS is a run away Frieght train that could benefit from more products hitched to that train.

I'm not a big TV user so what Apple is doing here is a deeper mystery for me. That being said I really wish that Apple would turn AppleTV into a more computer like platform. That is support apps on the platform.

I really dont get this iPhone 5 is a perfectly good name for the next iPhone. As is iPhone 4G and a host of other names. I still see Apple supporting two phone platforms in the future.

I see these two coming together in a high capacity Touch replacement. It would be most excellent to see a 128GB Touch.

This is also a given! I'm really expecting that 15" AIR though. I can also see the 13" MBP getting revamped for markedly better performance.

Obviously the laptop line is doing really well. I suspect that they have the market well covered but I'd also like to see Built in cellular networking in the MBPs.

I'm surprised that you are expect very little that is totally brand new. I just see new products as likely considering the momentum they have.

Yeah I see that all the time but it has absolutely nothing to do with naming the next iPhone, iPhone 5.

I'd have to say a very strong possibility.

I want iPad 3 to get more Flash storage but also realize that they may have to expand RAM considerably to drive a retina display. So at a minimum I'm expecting more RAM which may impact cost.

Nope my definition is that the 15" AIR is exactly that an AIR. The MBP are far more powerful than the current AIRs, something I expect to remain true for a very very long time. MBP simply have more volume to work with, which means there is more freedom to tune various parameters and to deliver bleeding edge pro features. As to the 13" MBP even now the AIRs don't come close to the performance of the 13" MBP, remove the optical from that machine and you can make it even more powerful. There is really no overlap in targetted audiences.

Maybe I'm a bit wishful but I just think this is a good year for Apple to break out a bit and attack new markets. It is also a good year to strengthen existing product lines.

I've been tempted to get an Apple TV just to jailbreak it to run apps. For the price it is really a powerful platform to run apps. A6 would just enhance that to no end.

I'm not sure even Apple could get me to buy a TV. They would have to do something about the cable companies and data rates.

I suspect the big tower is on the way out.

Yes! The Mini server is such a bad joke it just makes me sick. A well designed XMAc could easily deliver that sort of fipunctionality in a specific configuration.

Yep!

I'd rather see Siri expanded outside of OS/X on iOS devices. I wouldn't object to it on the Mac just that I don't see it as a big draw.

I've been so busy I've forgotten about my own thread.


I suspect the above two items are linked, we will get one or the other but not both. I'm not a TV user to any extent so it could be years before I buy an Apple TV set. Now Apple TV 3 is another thing altogether as I see it as a hackable platform.

I suspect Apple has no choice here, the current Pro needs to die. They need to come out with something with the right economics.

I'm expecting an all new design myself. I'm fuzzy on the exact configuration but it needs to be a high performance machine relative to a 15" Mac Book AIR.

Revamped is about right, the platform will see Minor changes. The best thing that could happen to the iMac is for it to loose the CD in favor of rational secondary storage. By that I mean provision for storage modules, either magnetic or solid state that allows for user configuration to their needs. So somebody like me could have a 256GB boot drive that is an SSD and a bulk storage magnetic drive for data.

Nope! I really don't see a chance in hell of this working or being accepted by users. Now that doesn't mean they won't borrow heavily from each other. It is just that the professional users will not accept a looked down desktop OS in the way iOS devices are. Mind you I really love my iOS devices but would have little use for a computer so restricted.

As long as Apple recognizes that users have entirely different needs with respect to accessibility they can make the two OSs look alike and evolve based on the good points of each platform. But they won't merge in the sense that many have of the word.

Those are expected, but I'm not calling them new. Actually what I was after in this thread is what do people think will come that is entirely new. Especially with iOS where Apple is on a roll?

Some ideas I have:

1. A sub seven inch iPad. Like it or not many would prefer this simply due to portability. The Lab Coat iPad!
2. An iPod/iPad replacement for the iPod Classic. Pretty much as described a slightly larger Touch like device with enough SSD to effectively replace the Touch. This should be a high capacity device with a base of 128 GB and a max of 256 GB. Ideally it would have functionality as a USB storage device too.
3. A 13" iPad.
4. A clam shell iPad with a configurable keyboard. Something that would be sort of like a net book but not. For some users, especially writers this could be a very nice platform.
5. An Apple TV with a USB port. Why? To support a USB connected camera and thus supporting FaceTime. This would make for one excellent IP telephone that can just happen to do all of the Apple TV things.
6. I'd love to see an iPad come from Apple, of any size, that is ruggedized for commercial use. That is a hardened case with swappable battery. The idea being a device that can be used 24/7 in the less hospitable business environments. This guy should also have a few other features. For one a more rugged port for recharging (MagSafe?), along with a USB port. An expansion port wouldn't be a bad deal either (Think laser scanners, special purpose cameras, custom interfaces and the like).

How about something all new in the Mac lineup? Frankly sales are strong even though nothing really new has been added to the line in years. However those strong sales seem to be centered around a few machines, I really think Apple could do well by building a more appealing desktop machine. While the term XMac is often dismissed as impossible, I think the real impossibility is getting people to buy hardware they don't want, which is the Pro and Mini or two thirds of the desktop line. I really think Apple has no choice but to take a hard look at why the sales suck so. In the end Apple should be able to build an XMac machine with enough performance spread to cover both the Mini and most of the Mac Pro markets.

While Mac OS is pretty mature right now, there is still much that can be done. For example resolution independence. Another example would be enhanced heterogenous computing capabilities. Siri like voice integration is another possibility.

Apple is seeing strong sales in Mac hardware far out pacing the industry. While they are obviously focused on iOS, I don't see them totally ignoring Mac OS. Frankly I'm beginning to think the issue on the Mac side of things is simply a lack of vision when it comes to desktops.

Such technology could easily put a couple of cores to work on a local machine. I could even see Siri eventually making the first hop to your Local PC first and then to Apples servers even for requests from your iPhone. After all many people are still centered around their PC work wise.

Below is literally the tip of the ice berg. I'd be the first to admit though that it may take years to get people to adapt to talking to their computers. As to iPhones and the like I suspect that we will see Apple move even more of Siri to processing on the phone itself.

Interestingly this is only one way that Apple might evolve Mac OS, hitting 64 bit made for a bright future and unlimited possibilities. It is the age old story of software being two or three steps behind hardware.

Apple has been flying for awhile and frankly the performance of the Mac lineup has been exceptional. It isn't just about iOS devices.

Integration of hardware to support Siri

A high resolution screen, retina if you will.

A new approach to the storage subsystem. That is support for PCI-Express SSD's for high speed storage plus traditional storage.

Better than doubling of GPU performance.

Better Thunderbolt support.

A dock for iPad.

Better speakers. A pet peeve of mind on most Apple devices.

A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.

A totally redesigned and serviceable chassis.


These are just off the top of my head. The iMac isn't perfect, there is much Apple could do to improve And modernize it. Speaking of modernization there are technologies coming that we may not see this year that could work their way into future iMacs. The ideas above are possible if not probable.

However I have to say Johnny must be a bit on the lazy side if he can't find a way to integrate something like an SD slot in the from of the iMac. I'm not a big proponent of form over function at all! In the end it can lead to very high user dissatisfaction if it gets out of control.

Even from the standpoint of serviceability there is much that could be done without dramatic changes to the exterior of the iMac. For one thing there needs to be just one layer of parts and very easy access to the parts likely to fail. I'm looking at the hard drive here alompng with the power supply.

Look at it this way, Apple successfully reworked it Mac Book Pros into highly serviceable machines after having some of the worst machines on the market. They can do better with the iMac if they really want too. It might not be the machine I want to see, but it could still be light years from what we have now.