Here's what I think (as if anyone cares what I think . . .)
1. No xMac. Ever. Period. (Get over it, or save up for a MacPro tower.)
2. A new, non-ion, MacMini . . . FINALLY.
3. Speed-bumped, and/or quad-cored iMacs, or NOT.
4. A thin, flat, Mac tablet, with or without SED or OLED display technology. That's the jaw-dropper. I'd bet money on it.
While the Mini may have been targeted as being Apple's "PC-user brand conversion machine," anecdotal, and quantitative evidence shows that former PC users are buying iMacs, not Minis (half of all iMac sales are to former PC owners). The Penryn-aluminum iMacs was the best thing Apple ever did to attract new users to its brand. They're just so pretty. (NO ONE liked the cosmetics of the white plastic iMacs. No one.) Style matters.
Casual users don't care about new OS', and have little knowledge what benefits newly written code has in store for them as end-users. As important as it is, new code isn't "jaw-dropping." Although I do keep telling current PC users who are contemplating the switch, that, "The operating system IS the computer." Mergers and acquisitions . . . :::yawn:::. Casual users don't care who owns who. Components? Most users could care less about who makes what inside their shiny aluminum boxes. Consumers today want thin, small, and sexy. That's new Mac hardware. That's a new Mac tablet that folds up and slips into your trendy $7,000 purse (or, that $239 eco-friendly purse you got on Beverly) that you pull out at lunch at that equally trendy sidewalk cafe on Sunset.
