Official Macworld 2009 Prediction Thread
The Macworld 2009 keynote will be on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:00 AM PST/1:00 PM EST in San Francisco. What will Steve talk announce and talk about?
State of the Mac & Apple in tough times:
— Growth vs. Industry (kind of a rehash from notebook announcement on 10/14/08)
Snow Leopard's new features:
— GrandCentral
— Lighter OS footprint, transition towards Cocoa, including Finder
— Fully 64-bit
— Full ZFS support in server edition
— Built-in Exchange Support
— Shipping Saturday, March 28th?
iLife '09?
Multi-touch device?
Is that all? Apple trends towards 3 or 4 major areas over the course of 90 minutes.
I suspect new iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros will come after Macworld, but before the end of January. The 17-inch MacBook Pro seems like it may come closer toward NAB in April.
State of the Mac & Apple in tough times:
— Growth vs. Industry (kind of a rehash from notebook announcement on 10/14/08)
Snow Leopard's new features:
— GrandCentral
— Lighter OS footprint, transition towards Cocoa, including Finder
— Fully 64-bit
— Full ZFS support in server edition
— Built-in Exchange Support
— Shipping Saturday, March 28th?
iLife '09?
Multi-touch device?
Is that all? Apple trends towards 3 or 4 major areas over the course of 90 minutes.
I suspect new iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros will come after Macworld, but before the end of January. The 17-inch MacBook Pro seems like it may come closer toward NAB in April.
Comments
I think we'll have an announcement for Final Cut Studio 3 at MacWorld.
No, inappropriate venue for that...it will wait until NAB in Vegas in April.
No, inappropriate venue for that...it will wait until NAB in Vegas in April.
I think we will finally get a GPU accelerated Phenomenon with programmable effects shaders. This should come after the Snow Leopard release so yeah, it gives them something to show at NAB. Didn't they drop out of NAB last year though? I guess there's no point going if they had nothing to show so it could be different this year.
The MW event will probably have something financial for the stock people. I'm not sure about a Mac Pro, iMac and Mini release together. The Mac Pro may not come out until February or later due to the chips. The Mini and iMac have their upgrade path already simply with Nvidia chipset/chips and Penryn. Hopefully they both get a makeover. iMac looking like the Cinema display, Mini with minor changes, maybe all metal.
I still don't see a multi-touch device coming but I also don't see a reason not to bring one out. I jdon't really think it's important to have one right now but it will give them a big start on Windows 7, which is pushing multi-touch. It won't be a popular idea with some but I think they should replace the Macbook Air with one. Fewer people would be saying 'yeah but you can buy a faster Macbook for less'. It would be lighter and much easier to take travelling. It is pretty much impossible to stand in an airport with a laptop including the Air and type. A tablet can simply be held like a notepad.
Will people spill drinks on your keyboard on the plane? How can they if you have no keyboard? Imagine how thin that machine would be too.
No, inappropriate venue for that...it will wait until NAB in Vegas in April.
Normally I would agree, but since Apple did not have a booth at NAB last year, I'm placing my bet on MacWorld (or a separate Apple Event for FCS3).
Tablet/Mac Touch:
- 10" screen
- Slim and light, obviously no optical drive
- Pop-out rest for standing and laying on a table
- Separate keyboard & mouse (wireless)
- Running full OS X
- Option for HSPA (turbo 3G)
Apple TV, Take 3 software update:
- iTunes, making it a stand-alone media server
- Safari
- Keyboard & mouse (wireless)
- External HDs (USB)
- App Store with apps & games (hey, it's X-mas)
Does the Apple TV have the CPU, memory etc to run all of the above smoothly?
Snow Leopard might be exiting for the geeks, but if there's no new end-user features, it can not be the centerpiece of MWSF. Apple needs to show off new products or features that can generate sales.
/Daniel
Does the Apple TV have the CPU, memory etc to run all of the above smoothly?
The AppleTV has a faster processor and a more powerful GPU than the original XBox.
Snow Leopard might be exiting for the geeks, but if there's no new end-user features, it can not be the centerpiece of MWSF. Apple needs to show off new products or features that can generate sales.
/Daniel
Exchange support means that Macs will be useable in the office. Without it, you need to either use OWA Light for mail and calendar, or else convince the administrators to turn on IMAP support, and then use OWA for calendar.
Exchange support can make a big difference in the ability to use Macs at work. It can generate sales.
- Mac mini - It will either be redesigned or replaced, but we will see it. I expect the DisplayPort will be standard size since it is a desktop model.
- Cinema Displays - People need something to connect their new Mac mini to so we should see 20", 24", and 30" models. If the 30" model is not there then it could be because it is too expensive, or Apple is bringing out a larger model when the Mac Pro is updated.
- iWork - Numbers will get split into modes, spreadsheet and database, so people can get their AppleWorks databases into Numbers, allowing them to finally ditch AppleWorks. Pages and Keynote will get their improvements mentioned, but unless they are "selling points", they will not get a demo.
- iLife - Chapter markers will either make their way into iMovie or iDVD will let you choose where, instead of how often, to insert them. iWeb should get support for projects.
The list seems kind of small, but Apple can fill in the time with the various reports like iPhone sales, store openings, App Store downloads, and just maybe, "Snow Leopard" (OpenCL, Grand Central, etc).Lemon Bon Bon.
The items I see getting shown are:
- Mac mini - It will either be redesigned or replaced, but we will see it. I expect the DisplayPort will be standard size since it is a desktop model.
- Cinema Displays - People need something to connect their new Mac mini to so we should see 20", 24", and 30" models. If the 30" model is not there then it could be because it is too expensive, or Apple is bringing out a larger model when the Mac Pro is updated.
- iWork - Numbers will get split into modes, spreadsheet and database, so people can get their AppleWorks databases into Numbers, allowing them to finally ditch AppleWorks. Pages and Keynote will get their improvements mentioned, but unless they are "selling points", they will not get a demo.
- iLife - Chapter markers will either make their way into iMovie or iDVD will let you choose where, instead of how often, to insert them. iWeb should get support for projects.
The list seems kind of small, but Apple can fill in the time with the various reports like iPhone sales, store openings, App Store downloads, and just maybe, "Snow Leopard" (OpenCL, Grand Central, etc).This seems to be the most likely prediction. I think the 17" powerbook, 30" screen and new pro will be later, and if apple does have a tablet in the works I'm sure they'll into it at a special event. The mini will likely show up, and maybe newly designed iMacs to look like the new monitors from the front. That way, your new 20" or 24" iMac can have a second display that has the same lines as the computer itself, instead of a mix/match like I have now.
iLife, iWork and snow leopard will be used to showcase consumer software.
In other words, I see Macworld being more consumer oriented, with newer products, but nothing 100% completely new.
Mac Pro redesigned case
Cinema Display 24", 30", larger than 30"?
Mac Mini redesigned. slimmer case.
AppleTV hardware and software update.
iLife and iWork apps.
maybe iPhone 32gig.
Snow Leopard preview
that's it.
I will predict or wish:
Mac Pro redesigned case
Cinema Display 24", 30", larger than 30"?
Mac Mini redesigned. slimmer case.
AppleTV hardware and software update.
iLife and iWork apps.
maybe iPhone 32gig.
Snow Leopard preview
that's it.
Spot ON!. Just 2 minor additions, Mac Pro with i7 processors, of course. iPhone with DiskMode so I can carry large files to/from office!. hate fumbling with 4GB, 8GB thumb drives. iPhone we carry everywhere and most people have nanos, so data cable not a problem. Again this simple feature is present in most other phones like SE handset ...
Exchange support means that Macs will be useable in the office. Without it, you need to either use OWA Light for mail and calendar, or else convince the administrators to turn on IMAP support, and then use OWA for calendar.
Exchange support can make a big difference in the ability to use Macs at work. It can generate sales.
Built-in Exchange support is not the reason Macs are left out of big business, IMHO
Spot ON!. Just 2 minor additions, Mac Pro with i7 processors, of course. iPhone with DiskMode so I can carry large files to/from office!. hate fumbling with 4GB, 8GB thumb drives. iPhone we carry everywhere and most people have nanos, so data cable not a problem. Again this simple feature is present in most other phones like SE handset ...
There are plenty of apps out there that enable DiskMode for the iPhone
Exchange support means that Macs will be useable in the office. Without it, you need to either use OWA Light for mail and calendar, or else convince the administrators to turn on IMAP support, and then use OWA for calendar.
Exchange support can make a big difference in the ability to use Macs at work. It can generate sales.
Or you can, um, get MS Office for the Mac.
Snow Leopard demo, but not too much. SL is supposed to be an evolution to Leopard, so maybe some technology details will be expanded on, demo the new Finder, application demos to show off the speed of Grand Central.
iMac updates. No case redesign, but the motherboard will use DDR3 and NVIDIA nForce chipset with 9600M GT graphics chip. Intel Core 2 Quad and Duo. Same screen sizes. No-brainer update.
Mac mini. Gets discontinued.
Mac TV upgraded.
The Mac. A cube Mac in the same vein as the PowerMac G4 Cube.
- 8x8x8 cube
- Big enough to house a full size optical drive
- 3.5" hard drive
- 7.6x7.6 motherboard
- 3 DIMM slots for triple channel DDR3
- Core i7 processor (2.6-3.2GHz)
- 1 PCIe 16x slot
- External power supply
- $799 for 2.66GHz - 3GB RAM - 250GB HDD - Radeon HD 2400
- $1299 for 2.93GHz - 3GB RAM - 320GB HDD - Radeon HD 2600
- $1999 for 3.2GHz - 3GB RAM - 500GB HDD - NVIDIA 8800GT
No Mac Pro updates at this time.The Mac. A cube Mac in the same vein as the PowerMac G4 Cube.
Put my name on the waiting list. Wait. Make that two.
Not that it really matters, but is that in alumin(i)um or acrylic? D__n it, you've got me salivating.
Edit: One more thing - a new 30" ACD to go with the above.