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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Prognostications on MacWorld

Here’s my bi-yearly foot-shoot. Watch in amazement as I guess MacWorld events wrongly…AGAIN!

Okay - I’ve got a bad record on these things. Granted. So let’s give it one more shot, eh?

I have 50 minutes before the big event. Logic tells me that I shouldn’t expect the line to go too straight when it comes to a Jobs foretelling of the future, so I’m just going to bullet what I think will happen, step by step:

Apple numbers - how they’ve grown, how many iTunes are downloaded, increased market share, etc

Apple at 30 - a look back to where we are now.

iLife 07 - given

iWork 07 - given

Apple beyond 30 - where we’ll be going. Either Ive or Schiller come on stage now.

Jobs announces a 2-year exit plan for himself, with Ive or Schiller taking the reigns. Will they duo?

Upgraded hardware for MacBookPros and screens (75%)

New Airports for 802.11n (80%)

10.5 - demo new features, perhaps first look at new UI

Just one more thing - iPod Phone (80%), new iPod screen form factor (30%) and new relationships in telcom (80%) and movies/tv (80%)

Just one more little thing - iTV debuts. PVR functionality (50%) - syncs directly to iPod (30%) - can record TV (30%) or shift real DVDs to an personally-encrypted, trackable form and stores in iTunes (20%, but we can dream, huh?) - Streams movies from your iTunes-equipped Mac or PC (80%)

So - off I go to a pub quiz instead; mostly because I can’t stand to wait but also because I’m single and thar-be women. Thar. Remember - there’s more to living than MacWorld!

(UPDATED - wrong, wrong, wrong. It was the iPhone show, completely off the usual MacWorld script. Can I get a pass until the next real MacWorld?)