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December 17, 2007

speculation

Piper Jaffray weighs in with a few Macworld predictions

Posted Dec. 17, ’07, 12:00 PM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Apple » Speculation

Gene Munster.gifGene Munster, the Apple analyst at Piper Jaffray, has a few predictions up his sleeve. Among other things, Mr. Munster believes that we are going to see a new, slimmer MacBook at Macworld Expo 2008. It will use the new 64GB flash drive developed by Samsung and will have some futuristic multi-touch coolness thrown in. He also expects Apple to announce movie rentals at the iTunes Store and new content, like games, for the iPhone and iPod touch that would take advantage of their advanced multi-touch capabilities. However, he also says that he does not expect to see any form of tablet Mac or a sub-notebook at the upcoming Macworld Expo, nor does he see a 3G version of the iPhone coming our way this January. Read the full article over at the Silicon Alley Insider.

My thoughts? I think he is a bit off on the tablet/sub-notebook prediction but other than that, all of it seems to be pretty much on-the-mark. I sincerely believe that Apple has a great chance right now to introduce a highly portable notebook and grab a sizable chunk of the market which is just waiting for such a product to drop from the heavenly abode of the super-secret labs in Cupertino. I see no reason not to make this product. Of course, my super-powered third eye might be a bit clouded by the tiny little fact that I am dying to lay my own hands on such a notebook, so take it with a huge chunk of salt.

The 3G iPhone is definitely not coming so soon though. If Apple saw no good reason to include 3G in the phone when it was launched in June 2007, what would make them change their collective minds as quickly as January 2008? It will come, of course, but I don’t think it willbe a part of Macworld Expo 2008’s keynote. I expect it to be launched somewhere around mid-2008. The new MacBooks, games and movie rentals all sound very plausible to me, though.

I do get the feeling, however, that something is missing. It’s all very predictive and logical. When was the last time Apple did something so obvious? This is the company that had an entire Macworld keynote dedicated to completely non-Mac-related announcements earlier this year. I think we are going to see something unpredictable this time too—and it will be something that the Gene Munsters and Piper Jaffrays of this world could never have forecasted.

What do you think, dear readers? Let us hear some homebrew predictions from the MacUser reader base. Have any of you been holding out for some product and desperately hope that Apple drops it this January? Let it all out. We are good listeners, we swear.


10 Comments

Goobimama said:

I hope they release a 'new product' rather than an upgrade to an existing one.

Thing is, I'm finding it hard to make excuses to go to the Apple store, now that I've pretty much used their iTouch, iPhone, Pros and whatnot.

A sub notebook with some multitouch action would be just right...

December 17, 2007 12:33 PM
krye said:

This guy gives me the creeps.

Is it just me or do you have flash backs of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey and Die Hard 2?

December 17, 2007 12:43 PM
Anonymous said:

MacPro needs a update for sure. Today the standart configuration comes with less RAM then MacBook Pro, the design is 3-4 yaers old (still the best desktop design ever!). It need new processers and HD-DVD/BlueR DVD plus GAMING-videocard like GeForce 8800.

I love to see new Displays with iSight/Frontrow/HDMI as well.

December 17, 2007 12:44 PM
krye said:

I suspect iPhone updates will be a slow-roll, considering the last update (price drop, 4G discontinued) only PO'd customers.

December 17, 2007 12:51 PM
Free iPod Touch said:

That's too bad, I was really hoping a 3g iphone would be announced at macworld. I think I'm just going to go ahead and buy an iphone and stop waiting for the 3g. The announcement of a new slimmer macbook is great though.

December 17, 2007 3:25 PM
Dan said:

Although the thought of updated displays is not terribly sexy or earth shattering I find it interesting that the Apple Displays are no longer accessible form the main Apple Store page. You actually have to click on Mac Accessories section (they are not even in the quick links under the Mac Accessories section on the front page) and then select the Display category just to get a glimpse of the Apple Cinema displays. Hmmm... what does that tell us? It has been awhile. I would not be surprised if we see a new set of displays that also include HDMI inputs for that connection to the AppleTV or perhaps an AppleTV built right into a new display ... hmm the possibilities... this would make for an interesting family of announcements with the new content on iTunes and the possibility of downloading rented movies .... a solution like this could also answer the Apple DVR questions... remember Steve wants Apple to be the digital hub and the display is one of those pieces that has never really made the jump from computer monitor to digital lifestyle... it has previously been too limited without a bunch of extra hardware.

December 17, 2007 7:06 PM
Aayush Arya Author Profile Page said:

@Free iPod Touch
Just to make our position clear on this one, those predictions you see in the article are just that - predictions. It is quite possible that none of it may come true. Don't base your purchase decisions on predictions from analysts (or, for that matter, teenage bloggers).

That said, it is generally a good idea to wait for the Macworld announcements before buying a new Apple product when you are so close to it. :)

December 17, 2007 8:36 PM
D.J. Castro said:

I would like to see an iPhone Pro...

December 18, 2007 3:36 AM
Charles said:

I can't imagine that Apple would release a laptop that used flash memory that wasn't a sub-notebook. Isn't the whole point of using flash memory to make the thing smaller (yes, yes, I know it makes things a little faster, too...)? Yeah, I like thin computers as much as the next guy, but this seems a no-brainer to me.

December 18, 2007 8:12 AM

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