What will happen at Apple’s Wednesday event?
Time is closing in on the Apple event this Wednesday, ripe for new product announcements of all kinds, leaving us making a list and checking it twice in advance of the big Fall event.
The rumors have been rife for a month of so, and some even longer than that. In the past, September has been a month for iPod announcements, but the rumor mill has been working overtime to add possible announcements involving an iTunes subscription, a social networking app, the Beatles on iTunes, Apple TV, and that all-important tablet computer. Many of these are unlikely, but all of them stand a small chance, per the usual suspects lineup below.
The iPod rumors are perhaps the most solid. The best example is the Touch with a built-in camera, which one would think is a done deal given all the support the rumor has gotten. It seems almost like a natural progression. For the lower-level iPods, there will probably be incremental increases in memory and incremental price cuts only, according to a Guardian story. It’s also likely that there will be some other surprises for fans of the Touch, as befits the king of the iPod heap.
It’s also very likely that we’ll see a new iTunes version, and that the new package will have a social networking component based around music, with hooks into other popular social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. An iTunes subscription service is much more iffy, given Apple’s (and Steve Jobs’) seeming prejudice against such services. Likewise, the odds are against the Beatles coming to iTunes this quickly. It will probably happen, but not now.
Apple TV will probably get a big shot in the arm, maybe with enough features, bells, and whistles to move Apple TV into the realm of exciting at long last, with streaming wireless video, seamless gaming, and support for Mac and iPhone clients. There is even some chance that Apple will annouce, though not release, Apple televisions as a part of all this video magic.
The tablet computer is probably the biggest wild card. If a tablet is released it will probably be a base model, more suited for media and educational uses. Apple has not yet had time to put together a proprietary ARM processor and an OS X-like operating system for a high-end tablet. There is a better chance that the Tablet Pro version will make it’s debut in June next year at the developers conference. If there is a tablet on Wednesday, it will be a tame tablet.
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