2008 Macword Predictions

by Mike Shea on 13 January 2008

When I first started getting into Apple again, after twenty years away, I subscribed to a half dozen Mac enthusiast sites using my trusted Google Reader. Three months later I took them all off. Why, you ask?

Because they don't know anything. There are all sorts of rumors, all sorts of speculations, all sorts of insider tips that turn out to be crap. Major market researchers totally screw up their predictions with idiotic things like an iPhone Nano.

No one knows what Apple is going to do except Apple. We can all guess but that is all it is.

So I got rid of all my Apple rumor sites because I simply don't care. When Apple announces a new shiny, I'll learn then and go buy it.

I still listen to MacBreak weekly, though. It's one of my favorite podcasts next to TWiT, the Instance, the D&D Podcast, and Smodcast.

Macworld 2008 opens next week and every jackass with a blog has their predictions. So as not to feel left out, here are mine:

  1. Apple will announce a new Macbook ultraportable laptop. It will have an external DVD drive, a 12" or smaller screen, and run with a normal non-hybrid drive. It will weigh less than four pounds.

  2. Apple will release the iPhone SDK so people can quit whining and start releasing buggy poorly designed apps that don't really do anything that anyone really wants.

  3. Apple will announce movie rentals on iTunes. They'll charge $4 a rental (Hollywood's price built to kill the industry so they can keep selling DVDs) and no one will ever buy one. Netflix's stock will soar once the jackass marketing guys realize that $4 is less than $1.

  4. Apple will release a new iPhone with 16gb of memory for $400. It may have 3G as well. Again the same iPhone early adopters will complain hoping to get another $100 certificate. They won't.

  5. And the stretch prediction? Apple will release a new mighty mouse and finally get rid of the current crappy abomination with the thumb wheel that was jammed more often than it worked.

We won't see any new iMacs or Macbooks other than something with a unique form factor such as the ultraportable. We won't see any new iPods since we just saw a batch less than six months ago. We won't see a new Lepard or iLife or iWork since those are all new.

So now I have added my bullshit prediction to the reams and reams of lost bits likewise flowing across the net. We'll see next week.