Macworld 2009: What to expect at today's keynote

Leave it to Apple CEO Steve Jobs to steal everyone's thunder—even by his absence.

As I noted yesterday, speculation concerning the fate of Macworld, and the decision by Jobs to skip delivering the keynote for health reasons, has so dominated the blogosphere that even educated guesses regarding what new Apple products may be announced at the keynote address for the Apple community's trade show is taking a back seat.

Never one to shrink from risky speculation, I'll take a stab at handicapping what Apple VP Phil Schiller—subbing for Jobs—may say today:

• The first thing we're usually treated to at a typical keynote are stats: sales milestones, total downloads of songs/films/apps. iPhone App Store stats will be a new category to boast about, and since Mac market share has passed double-digits in the domestic market, expect some celebratory oration there, as well.


• We'll likely see a demo of Snow Leopard, OS 10.6. As Apple back in June filed for patents for a 3-D interface, it's also possible that we'll get a first taste.


• We may see some upgrades to the iLife and iWork productivity suites, possibly with a web component.


• There may be some incremental improvements to iPod Touch and iPhone, along with new offerings at the iTunes Music Store.


• We may get a look at Apple's first major update to their Cinema Display line of monitors in many years.


• I expect we'll hear something about AppleTV, the set-top box that ferries content to your TV set. Will it undergo yet another facelift to boost lagging sales, "merge" with MacMini, or quietly disappear, like the XServe Raid? More likely we'll see some updates to MacMini, and they'll sneak in some of AppleTV's features when they think no one is paying attention.

Here are two topics we don't expect to hear covered much, if at all, by Schiller (right):

• There is an argument raging as to whether or not Apple will finally announce a netbook or tablet product, either at this last Macworld keynote, or later in the year. A lot of people would like to see this, and have lobbied for it for years. But, technically, Apple already has two products that offer some of the qualities of a netbook: MacBook Air and iPod Touch.
  
  So the real question the pundits are asking is: "Will Apple offer a product in the current netbook space, as netbooks have been defined by their competitors, yet superior in quality and features, for about the same price?" The consensus, here, is around two schools of thought: "No!", and "Hell, no!" (For more on why, see my post from yesterday.)


• Any concerted new effort by Apple to promote enterprise computing. Although their products are certainly ready for prime time, we've seen very little in this area, and I'd be surprised to hear any major announcements now.

Personally, I'd like to see a final "one more thing," and have Steve Jobs take the stage one last time to deliver it—but that's pure wishful thinking. Of course, if you're more "geeky," your own wish list may vary.

For a play-by-play of the keynote, I'll be Tweeting (posting on Twitter.com) it today from 12 to 1:30 PM Eastern Time (9 to 10:30 Pacific), Wi-Fi connection permitting. My handle is "CU_tomtech."

—Tom Olson