Apple

I believe 2007 is a pivotal year for Apple. For us Apple "fans", I think a lot of what we've been hoping for from this company will come to light, in one form or another, more or less, this year.

Last year, I wrote about how Apple needed to release the "next big thing" to evolve beyond the iPod and maintain their level of excitement in the industry. I can't find that post right now, but I will erase this sentence and link to it if and when I do.

In January, Steve Jobs annoucned the iPhone, which immediately received a lot of stratospheric PR, then fizzled out somewhat as people digested its details and limitations, and is now on the upward trend again as its (by June- earlier?) release is approaching.

I think the iPhone itself will probably be the single most obvious "thing" to point to in reference to "Apple 2.0", which is the big idea here in relation to the 2007 theme. I also think that Steve Jobs has a personal attachment to the iPhone- for whatever reason- that insures it will get the full "Steve Jobs treatment", which has proven successful before.

Regardless, I believe 2007 is the year of "Apple 2.0", which is really just another way of saying "Apple's next generation".

Which itself is really just another way of saying that I believe 2007 will be the year in which Apple does something profound in tying together its computer (the Mac along with the Leopard version of Mac OS X and, yes, a level of compatibility with the Windows world), portable digital media (iPod), commerce (iTunes), living room (Apple TV), and everything else (iPhone plus God-knows-what) into something that makes most people stand back and take a breath.

Consider these facts:

1. Apple has not released a new Mac in quite some time (again, hopefully I can dig up details and replace this placeholder statement with a reference to publiished fact). It almost seems as if there's a whole new generation of "something" that will be part of every new Mac sold Apple is not quite yet ready to announce, since there have been no new Macs announced in so long.
2. Macworld was in January and there was essentially NO Mac news. It was all about the iPhone. All Mac stuff was still TBD. No iLife announcements, at least? Something must (or should be, at least) up.
3. Mac OS X Leopard- as currently announced- is boring as hell. Really, it's true. I've played with beta releases, and everything Apple has talked about (more or less) works as advertised, but are these "advertised" features really worthy of a major upgrade? A new backup system? Spaces? Under the hood improvements? So far, Leopard consists of some nice new touches and some good developer technologies, but nothing ground-breaking for the average user.
4. This leads me to believe that Apple has something "big" up its sleeve for Leopard. I don't know how practical it would be to hide major features from testers prior to release (if release is in fact imminent), and I know for a fact that there are as of now no other major new end-user features that are exposed in the current (buggy) test releases that would fit the category of "major" new release... But...
5. Resolution independence is coming architecturally in Mac OS X. It's part of the iPhone interface. It's (been) part of OS X (since 10.4, in many respects). So maybe there's some level of OS-level interface magic up Apple's sleeve for Leopard. Who knows? But it would kinda make sense...
6. Maybe there's a hardware component to this (aka all new Macs ship with some level of support for direct multi-finger touching interfaces, similar to the iPhone), that is part of all of the new Macs that are yet to be released?
7. So, okay, if not in 2007, at least we can all admit that iPhone-like interfaces will be coming to "computers" sometime over the next 5 years or so (or sooner?)?
8. Apple has known that Windows Vista was going to drop in 2007 for quite some time. Do you really think they'd be content to sit back and let Vista gnaw at Mac OS X as it's (arguably) doing, or do you think Apple would rather take a breath, give Microsoft it's chance to "shine", and then come out swinging with something game-changing? I vote for scenario B.
9. The Mac is now Intel. This was not the case with the last previous major release of Mac OS X. This point alone may not be a big deal this time around, but think about it- it COULD be. I have a single computer- a Mac with Parallels- on my desktop right now, and I would NOT have had that sans the Intel transition- it would have been a Mac and a Dell. Think about the significance of that and the possibilities it unleashes.
10. Wrap all of these facts- plus a few wildcards- up, and Apple can make some big gains this year.

Will 2007 be the year in which Apple takes over for Microosft and Sony in one fell swoop? I doubt it. Will 2007 be the year in which Microsoft and Sony suffer serious damage at the hands of Apple? Yes, I believe so.