Gathering rumors for the 2009 Macworld conference and exhibition has been a bittersweet experience, what with it being the last year that Apple will attend.
This year’s list starts with the products that are most likely to be announced, and works its way down to the products most likely never to see the light of day.
1. Mac Mini
Courtesy of Apple
After many months of wistful anticipation and many premature rumors, a new Mac Mini will finally see the light of day. It’s been almost 18 months since Apple has paid any attention to the low-priced and popular Mac Mini, which is long enough for any product to lag behind the technology curve.
The new Mac Mini will sport the same graphics chipsets as the latest version of the MacBook: the NVIDIA 9400M. It’s also likely to have a configuration option that brings the NVIDIA 9600M GT on board to operate in tandem with the 9400M. The Mini will have the same Mini DisplayPort connector now seen in Mac portables.
Expect to see the Mini outfitted with a minimum of 2 GB of RAM and the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor, running at a minimum of 2 GHz.
2. iMac
Courtesy of Apple
The iMac will be getting a graphics chipset makeover, just like the Mini. Expect to see new iMac graphics powered by the NVIDIA 9400M + 9600M GT, just like the latest MacBook Pro. Unlike the MacBook Pro, the iMac will be able to use both graphics processors concurrently for significant graphics performance increases over earlier iMacs. The new iMacs will also incorporate the Mini DisplayPort video connection now seen in portable Macs.
Standard memory configuration will be bumped to 2 GB. The iMac should be able to support a total of 8GB of RAM.
One thing I’m not sure about is whether FireWire will remain a part of the new iMac. My gut feeling says the FireWire port will still be there, but we will have to wait and see.
3. Snow Leopard
Apple may be feeling some pressure to get Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) out the door early. Originally scheduled to make its appearance early in the summer of 2009, Apple may push Snow Leopard up and try to release it during the first quarter of 2009.
I don’t expect Snow Leopard to be available at the Macworld show, but a demonstration during the keynote is highly probable, with an announcement of an expected shipping date.
Snow Leopard will provide significant performance increases because it uses two new technologies: Grand Central and OpenCL. Grand Central will allow applications to make better use of multi-core/processor Macs, while OpenCL will let applications use idle graphics processors for computational needs other than graphics.
4. iPhone nano
Courtesy of Apple
The iPhone nano is the latest addition to Apple’s iPhone lineup. The nano is a lower-cost, smaller version of the iPhone 3G. While retaining the core features of the iPhone 3G, the iPhone nano will have a slightly smaller screen physically, but will retain the same display resolution.
Although often referred to as the iPhone nano, it is not likely to physically look like an iPod nano. It’s more likely to be a proportionally trimmed down version of the current iPhone.
I expect the target price for the iPhone nano to be in the $99 to $149 range, with the upper end of that price spectrum the most likely. Expect to see a 4 GB version for the low end.
5. Apple TV
Courtesy of Apple
Apple still isn’t getting good traction in the video arena with its Apple TV product. While Apple seems heavily dedicated to TV and movie sales via the iTunes Store, the Apple TV falls short as a primary playback device. Macs and iPods are still the favorites for viewing video.
To make a dent in the market, Apple will need to offer an Apple TV that incorporates a TIVO-like recording capability. Imagine an iTunes-style front end for scheduling TV show and movie recordings.
The Apple TV also needs to be able to record in HD format, and make the recordings available to any network device on a home network as well as to a TV.
