Ask any 10 public who pay attention to Apple what the company will do next and you’ll probably get 10 different predictions, some that seem to come completely from left field.

Making these predictions has become a bit of an industry unto itself, as Apple develops its computers and consumer electronics with the sort of need-to-know secrecy usually reserved for the CIA. Sometimes Apple employees tapped to work on one aspect of a project are kept in the dark about what the final product will be.

that secrecy is part of Apple’s allure, and the allure goes straight to the heart of the type. Without secrecy, there would be much less reason to talk about Apple in the first place. But when folks come to expect good-gosh surprises with every product launch by CEO and ringmaster Steve Jobs, it gets harder and harder to please. And so once again, at the annual Macworld Conference & Expo, the pressure is on.

Big-Screen News?

The emphasis of that year’s announcements seem obvious, even whether the specifics remain a mystery. Despite the relative ease with which Jobs forged a music industry alliance that helped Apple define and dominate the music download business, the company has been stymied so far in getting the digital-averse motion picture industry to follow suit.

So prognosticators are betting that year’s big news will be a breakthrough with Hollywood for online film rentals and sales through iTunes. Along the same lines, Apple’s not-yet-successful AppleTV, an Internet-connected set-top box, is expected to get a serious revamp through a software upgrade, allowing direct access to the new iTunes movie offerings.

Media companies including Disney, Viacom, and Fox are among those expected to play along. But competitors are gathering: Netflix, Blockbuster, and others are developing online movie download services.

Maintaining Its Pace of Growth

But assume for a moment…

Orginal post by Top Tech News