What Product Do You Want Apple To Design Next?

Macworld is barely a month away. Speculation on the next new products from Apple is running fast and furious.

Will Apple redesign the uninspired PC tablet and introduce a Mac pad? Will they introduce a new 3G iPhone or an iPad? What product would you like to see Apple design next?

Most Mac pundits expect Apple to introduce an ultra thing MacBook Pro without a hard drive or a SuperDrive. Could that machine also double as a Mac tablet with touch screen technology built in? See how much fun speculation is?

We’ll do our part to fan the flames of expectation between now and Macworld in mid January. In the meantime, consider Apple’s legendary design prowess. What additional products would you like to see come from Apple’s award-winning design team?

I’m inspired by visits to two web pages this past week. The first is from our friends at MacLife, and an article entitled Apple Hardware Prototypes: Four Radical New Concepts Revealed.

What caught my eye was the graphic of the great looking wheels with the Apple logo at the center.

Sweet. I’d consider getting a different car just for a set of wheels like that.

Apple’s designs carry similar elements. Elegant look. Simple feel. High usability. Low learning curve. That “sweet spot” in design shows up in nearly every product in Apple’s line, whether hardware or software.

The MacLife article discussed Apple’s obvious plight—the requirement continually to top itself—and offered an imaginary look at four different directions that Apple could take. Science fiction, meet Jonathan Ive. There’s the Squidget, some sort of portable communication device ala iChat gone WiFi and Fisher-Price.

As if there’s not enough iLife, iMac, iPod, iPhone, how about iEye, the ultimate pocket camera. iProtection is the portable, mobile security system, a personal safety device stungun. Point, click, zap to high heaven. And back.

I’d pay the cost of a Macworld keynote to see Steve Jobs demonstrate that one on stage.

Finally, the iCar. Think Audi TT with touches from Apple’s design team. Wheels. Cockpit. Dashboard.

The second site was a page on the Apple Collection site which displayed various Apple inspired products, some of which are remarkably close to the real thing. I chuckled at the PowerMac G6. Did Apple TV share roots from the Mini AV Station? You be the judge.

Apple’s design capability, whether hardware or software, inspires us to want products we don’t even know about yet.

That said, what product would you like to see Apple design?

Notice that the MacBook Pro has heritage dating back many decades, at least in computer years. After all, the aluminum PowerBook, from which the MacBook Pro is derived, began life barely five years ago. Some Apple designs stand the test of time. Others are discarded quickly as newer designs take their place.

Goodbye, iPod mini, hello iPod nano. Goodbye, sunflower iMac, hello aluminum iMac. Out with the not so old, in with the very new.

It could be argued that Apple will not launch a fully new product any time soon. The market is still digesting the iPhone. In the meantime, we may only see revised products with evolutionary changes, not the birth of a whole new line of products.

Without a new product on the horizon, it’s time to dream, speculate, pontificate, and lust after what could be but isn’t. What do you lust for that Apple hasn’t designed but should?