Predictions: Who Knows Apple’s Future For 2007?

Our record for predicting what will happen at Macworld keynotes and product introductions is superb, stellar, unchallenged.

So far as we can tell, no one else is better than about 50-50. Same as Mac360. Here’s what others predict for Apple in 2007.

We’re on record as saying Macworld will see a new iLife ‘07, a new iWork ‘07 (and we’ll cough up the $79 for each, of course), and a demo of Mac OS X Leopard.

How’s that for a classy prediction? Are we down to earth, or what? The problem is that anyone can make a prediction. The real trick to predicting anything related to Apple, Macs, Steve Jobs or iPods is accuracy.

With Macworld Expo 2007 just days away, every other Mac site is claiming this and reporting that. We don’t want to be too far from the mainstream, hence our list of predictions, too.

After next week’s Steve Jobs keynote, demonstrations, and product introductions, make sure to check our list to see how good we are at knowing the future.

Where we were accurate, give us our due applause. Where we were wildly inaccurate, well, we’re in good company, so applaud us for the friends we choose.

Frankly, and so far as we can tell, no one knows for sure exactly what Apple will do next week, and that probably includes Steve Jobs who has been known to call a different play on the line of scrimmage, uh, the keynote.

What are others predicting? Macworld asked their huge reader base what they expected and the results are anything but surprising.

There’s the usual blather about iLife ‘07 and iWork ‘07. It’s blather when someone else repeats the obvious. When we do it, it’s astute observation, and insider knowledge.

Some readers expect Blu-ray drives to show up on a few Macs, especially the new Mac Pro. Others expect new Cinema Displays, or the quad core Intel chip on the high end Mac Pro.

There’s the standard non-imaginative ideas of an Apple-designed cell phone with an iPod inside, an ultra small, super lightweight MacBook Pro, perhaps with tablet capability.

It’s hard to argue with those predictions from Mac users as they pretty much echo the predictions of Macworld‘s editors, and those of ThinkSecret, AppleInsider, and everyone else reporting the same line and list of Mac secrets.

What about Steve Jobs himself? What’s in store for Apple’s King in 2007? The latest Celebrity Horoscopes say Steve will give us a surprise at Macworld 2007. Is the surprise a jail term, an indictment, or something I can buy from the Apple Store?

The same celebrity futuristics claim that Oprah will try something new. Maybe it’s another diet, or perhaps she’ll give away iPods on her next show.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer will se a “tinge of frustration” in 2007. Can you say “bugs in Vista,” Steve?  I don’t know why he’d be frustrated. Microsoft is sure to sell out of all 1,000 Zunes they produced for 2007.

As for the rest of the lists, and the lists of the lists of Macworld predictions, a few things are axioms and won’t be different this year, either.

Steve Jobs will deliver some of what we expect. He won’t deliver some of what we expect, and certainly not all of what we predict we want. And he’ll have a surprise for us.

That’s my prediction and I’m sticking to it.

What’s yours? Besides what you want from Apple at Macworld, what do you predict Apple will deliver in 2007? Share your crystal ball prowess with the world, or both of the Mac360 readers, via the Comments section below.