Using interviews with insiders and analysts, patent searches, and just plain good guess work, Business 2.0 writers propose a credible product road map for Apple, the company that seems to be reinventing consumer electronics. Apple CEO Steve Jobs wouldn't talk to Business 2.0, but the mag did score interviews with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former company exec Mike Homer, and others in the know or close to it.
The stakes are huge, not only for the company but also for the industries targeted by the "Apple of the Future." "For the first time in more than a decade," the authors write, "Apple has a chance to become a commercially powerful company…a leader in new markets that are exponentially bigger than the very computer industry it pioneered." Those markets include Hollywood, telecommunications, and your car.
So what's on tap, according to the magazine? Almost a certainty is a wireless iPod that allows users to download tunes anywhere on a Wi-Fi network, followed by an iPod-like video player (likelihood: 75 percent) to view home movies and, eventually, Hollywood titles; a home entertainment box (70 percent) that controls everything from your digital music collection to your TV; an expanded line of iPods and a dashboard interface for cars (60 percent); and an iPhone (50 percent).
This is a good read for anyone interested in Apple and consumer electronics.