What Will Steve Jobs Announce at Macworld 2008?

With Macworld 2008 now barely more than a week away, it's time to start considering what amazing new products Steve Jobs might introduce when he takes the stage to give his Keynote address.

Why do people think something exciting, new and amazing might be coming at this year's Macworld Expo? Because in the past, that's exactly what has happened. Products such as the MacBook Pro, the AirPort wireless base station and more have all been revealed at various Expos.

So, without further adieu, I'd like to make my picks for four different products I think will be featured. Some might be new products, others might simply be current products given feature upgrades, while still others might be something entirely different.

The first big update I think could happen is a big upgrade to the Mac Pro line of Mac computers. The Mac Pro is considered to be Apple's professional line of computers, with bigger hard drives, faster processors and more RAM, by default, than any other line of Macs. So, what will be different about the upgraded Mac Pro? The main thing, I think, will likely be a faster processor. At the moment, there are four different processor configurations you can purchase for your Mac Pro, three of them are two, dual-core chips, while the top of the line is two, quad-core chips. I think we'll see the bottom end (two 2.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon chips) phased out, everything shifted down one level, and the new top-end revealed to be a faster version of the quad-core chip currently used. You may also see the video cards improved, either across the board or only in the high-end model.

The second item I can see happening is that Apple decides to throw its hat into the BluRay/HD-DVD ring, and supports BluRay. Don't be surprised if Apple decides to make purchasing a BluRay burner an option to early adopters. It won't be a standard option yet, but it will be available. This won't be cheap, of course, but neither were the first CD or DVD burners when Apple started making them available as add-on purchases back a few years ago.