MacMost's look at what could be in store for Apple fans in 2010. Rumors point to a new tablet product, as well as changes in iTunes. We can also expect updates as usual, including a new iPhone in 2010. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
You can also watch this video at YouTube.
You can also watch this video at YouTube.
Video Transcript
Hi this is Gary with MacMost Now. On today's episode let's take a look at what's in store for the Apple world in 2010.
Well the end of 2009 leaves us with three big rumors of things to come. The first of course is of the Apple tablet. Some think it may be called the iSlate or even the iGuide, but everyone agrees that it will be a 7 or 10 inch tablet probably running an iTouch touch like interface.
A lot of rumors have centered around Apple talking to magazines and other publishers about getting content onto the device. So it may be more of a content delivery type of device rather than a computing device.
It would be nice to have a tablet Mac but it really looks like things are leaning to the fact that this will be more like iPhone or iPod Touch. In fact it may be competing directly with the Kendall. But with a full color touch screen it may priced much higher than a Kendall but at the same time have a lot more capabilities.
A lot of the rumors center around whether or not it will have the connectivity like it will have wifi connection or some sort of dedicated connection to a wireless network. We'll just have to wait and see. Rumors point to an announcement perhaps in January with a release in March but nobody knows for sure.
There are some other rumors that may or may not be connected to the tablet and that is of Apple talking to TV networks about getting content on a subscription type of service. Now this may have more to do with Apple TV or even just iTunes on your Mar or on your iPhone but it seems that Apple wants to get into the content business. Now how something like this would differ from the season passes we can already get for television shows in iTunes it's hard to tell but it looks like it's something we me be afoot that we might see in 2010.
And the third set of rumors that have been brewing around is about expanding the iPhone in the United States to networks outside of AT&T. There have been various rumors about Verizon, and various rumors about Sprint and T-mobile. We will have to see if AT&T's exclusivity does expire in 2010 then will Apple go and take it to multiple networks and will it be a different version of the iPhones for those networks. It's really hard to tell but we can be certain that in 2010 we will see a new version of the iPhone. Apple comes out with a new one every summer. We don't really know what features will be on a new version of the iPhone but hopefully the will take the iPod Touch with it and add a camera to the iPod Touch as well this year.
On the Mac side of things it's not that likely we will see Macs that look any different in 2010 than they did in 2009 but we may have different things inside.
For instance the I5 and I7 processors in the new 27 inch IMAX may also find their way into Mac Pros and even MacBook Pros. We will just have to wait and see. I think it's doubtful that Apple is actually going to redesign any of the computers for 2010.
And the same thing for the iPods. We got new iPod Nanos and iPod shuffles in 2009 so I don't see any reason why Apple would update these in 2010. At least not in the first half of the year.
We may see some new things in terms of iTunes and how you get your music. With the purchase of LaLa Apple may be moving more towards a in the cloud model where you can access your music anywhere. Also, over the last several years there have been a lot of rumors about subscription based services where you can subscribe to iTunes and be able to listen to as much music as you want. A lot of other services offer this and I wouldn't be surprised if we finally see something like this in 2010.
So in 2009 we got Snow Leopard so maybe we will hear the first things about the successor to Snow Leopard in 2010. There should be a world wide developers conference about late spring, early summer. So, that would be the perfect place for Apple to announce that they are working on a new operating system but I doubt we will even see a developer version of it this year.
I would like to hear what you think Apple has in store for us in 2010. On twitter you can contact me at twitter.com/rosenz, Facebook, facebook.com/MacMost and you can also leave a comment to this post at MacMost.com.
Till next year this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now.
Happy new year Gary. Here it will be 2010 in about 3 hours. (already watched your predictions for 2010, and hope you are wrong on the tablet: would love to finally be able to buy a real tablet computer from apple .... but suppose you are right).
Happy New Years to you and yours Gary. Very glad I found your website a few weeks back. Looking forward to extending this relationship in 2010.
As far as predictions go, I wonder what damage, if any, the problem with the 27-inch iMacs will have on sales and Apple's reputation?
Thus far, my more intense usage of my iMac in the past two months has led me to feel less excited about my decision to purchase than I had since purchasing it in March. But we'll see what happens...