With Thanksgiving right around the corner and 2005 quickly fading, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2006, and to all the promise the New Year holds for great Mac hardware and software products. And that’s where you come in—we want to know what you think the big news will be for our favorite platform.
To put things in perspective, here’s a list of the top reader predictions for 2005—plus a brief assessment of how accurate they were:
• PowerBook G5s : If only wishing made it so…
• Low-price, flash-based iPods : iPod shuffle and iPod nano —yeah, I’d say we have a winner.
• 3GHz-plus Power Macs : Let’s wait a few months and ask Intel about that one.
• Improved AppleWorks to replace Microsoft Office : No dice—Microsoft stills rules the roost.
• Digital-hub hardware : Does the new iMac count?
• Sony-branded iPods : More like the opposite—so long, HP iPod.
• Apple settles with the Beatles; the iTunes Music Store gets exclusive distribution : Beatles who?
• Dual-processor iMacs : Sorry, no.
• Quad-processor Power Macs and Xserves : Half right—once Apple actually starts shipping the high-end Power Mac, that is.
• Video iPods :—Bravo!
• More Apple Stores, mostly mini stores : Eh…partial credit.
So now that you’ve seen last year’s picks, we hope you’ll weigh in with some ideas for 2006. Post them in the comments thread below, and sit back and watch as your grandiose visions come to life.