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If you've been following the surplus of Mac Rumors like I have, you've probably seen Apple's current homepage graphics. They've got what most people are calling a "teaser" for January 9th's MacWorld product unveilings. Basically, Apple's got some expected tricks up its sleeves. The following are some rumored products:

• An iPod-style cellular telephone with some type of mini-OS
• Updated versions of applications including an Excel-competitor
• Official release of iTV, Apple's home media streaming unit
• Updated speed or feature set on Mac Pro or MacMini
• Leopard (the new OS) features
• Some sort of tablet PC with the Mac OS
• A new iPod, specifically touch-screen, widescreen, or some type of device whose screen fills the normal iPod size
• New Apple displays (computer monitors)

The irony of the situation is that all of the above bullets could be bogus. Although some of the products, such as the iTV and Leopard, are inevitable to debut in the near future, many of the above-mentioned products may never see their debut. Speculation of "industry experts" is what pushed many of these products to spark thousands of Mac geeks to blog and develop spec commercials of the products they'd like to see.

Perhaps this is the way Apple should do business: create the products that get the buzz. Sure--they're probably not planning to release a Tablet PC with a Mac OS, but it seems like the public might just like this idea. When you run a company like Apple, a "bad apple" can be the end to success.

Apple's been running into a bit of a hole with its iTunes music store. With lots of other music stores offering enticing deals and DRM-free music, sales of iTunes music have decreased. I don't think this means that Apple is suffering, though. 95% of customers who purchase an iPod will, at some point, buy a song out of iTunes simply because of its ease of use.

Adding a new iPod or a product with iPod features will certainly increase this user base. Even if the prices of iTunes songs were three times that of their competitors, they would still own a significant chunk of market share. Thus, iTunes jukebox and store can run entirely on its own.

It is important to note that an iPod cell phone is likely to house a small amount of storage, meaning that a large percentage of current iPod users (which will be most of the buyer market) will have no need for additional iTunes music. If Apple wants to keep up with iTunes, they've got to bump up the memory.

What do I think Apple is going to do with their day of fame on January 9th? I expect to see at least of one of the speculated products above, but I don't expect the feature set to be predictable. We've seen what Apple can do--iTV came out of nowhere. Just because we haven't found a patent for levitating iPods doesn't mean Apple hasn't planned that. I expect to see an updated iPod, hopefully one with cellular telephone capabilities. Let's not confuse what I'd like to see and what will probably be released: I'd like to see Apple innovate the cell phone industry with the magic device, but I won't know until that day comes.

"Go ahead: wow me."