The Apple World Wide Developers Conference – WWDC08 – is barely days away from kicking off. Everyone is expecting some Pretty Big Things to be announced – 3G iPhones, OSX 10.6, new .Mac service, new MacBooks, iPhone Nano and lots more.

Rather than one big post, I’ll break up my thoughts on what I expect /hope to see. Let’s start with the iPhone.

iPhone 3G – 100%

Yes the 3G iPhone will be announced. There has been too many phone carriers around the world announcing plans to offer the iPhone “soon” for it not to be announced. There has been no “leak” or “rumor” from Apple to throw cold water on peoples expectations – nothing to say that it’s been delayed till the end of the year.

Availability might be another thing. I’d say it’s 50-50 as to the 3G iPhone being available as of the announcement on Monday, or available “in a few weeks – or even a few months” as the original iPhone was. I doubt the release would be more than 2 months away, and of course I’d love to see it available internationally as of this week.

Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars of FREE press and hype Apple got with the extended introduction last time.

iPhone 2.0 – 100%

Separate to the 3G iPhone being announced will be the upgrading of the software for all iPhones to version 2.0. This was announced back in February 08, but I expect a big deal will be made of the applications that people have already made with the SDK.

(The Software Developers Kit – SDK, and the new Apps Store, allows anyone to write and distribute application for the iPhone, rather than just Apple as it has been for the first 12 months of iPhone)

Expect to see Steve Jobs introducing some big name companies who have written apps for the iPhone covering games, enterprise, productivity etc.

GPS on 3G iPhone? – 90%

If they can keep the size and the battery life – then GPS should be included with the 3G iPhone.

Better camera? 95%

The chipset that Apple are supposedly including with the 3G iPhone supports a 5 Megapixel camera. As one of the disappointing “includes” with the original iPhone – I think upgrading it to what is basically the standard for decent phone cameras now, is a done deal.

Triple Band – Quad Band – 95%

The 3G iPhone has to be capable of working in all of the markets that it has been “unofficially announced” for. Plus too many travel now between countries and wont accept a phone that doesn’t go with them.

With all the effort Apple have put into iPhone 2.0 for getting it to work with enterprise – especially Microsoft Exchange, it only makes sense to make the 3G iPhone global as best they can.

Nano iPhone / Alternate Models – 10%

I don’t think Apple will release more than one model of iPhone. I’m 90% sure we will see a new model before Christmas, but Apple won’t want to take away from the 3G iPhone / 2.0 announcement itself.

A Premium 3G model will lead the way in sales and revenue before offering more models in September with a iPod refresh.

Plastic Back / Colors – 10% / 75%

I really hope Apple don’t give up the Aluminum back for a plastic thing. The mockups “leaked” onto the web look cheap and nasty – I just don’t like plastic. Given the noise they have made by converting a few million computers from plastic to Aluminum, I don’t see them replacing that with an iPhone they will sell 10 times the amount of.

I really DO hope we see a couple of colors. A Product (RED) iPhone would be awesome (perhaps Orange?). As long as its not the wusy bland pastels of the current Nano iPods.

Apple has sent out invitations to a “Special Event” for September 5. It’s expected they will announce some new “digital media offerings”.

What does that mean? Well it seemed a great point to base the first 360Mac ponderings on.

New widescreen iPods

Well duh ! Of course there will be new iPods. The current 5G models are 2 years old and people need a reason to replace them (ie – spend money again). The 5.5 bump last year was a nice upgrade – but it was mainly software and Apple nicely let existing users get the upgrade and new features. Something I don’t think they got enough credit for.

Lots of people are expecting an iPhone sans the phone bit. A widescreen iPod and internet device via wi-fi. While that sounds like a great device – I think Apple will get to it in a couple of stages.

iPod 6G for 07/08 will more likely be just the widescreen. Putting wifi and internet on it now would severely dampen a lot of iPhone sales going forward. Apple didn’t spend years developing the iPhone only to cut its legs out months after US release and before the thing even hits markets like Europe and Asia.

Once the iPhone is released worldwide, probably upgrgaded to 3G HSDPA speeds, then I think we can expect a iPod with wifi this time next year.

Will this years widescreen iPods have the conventional 1.8 inch hard drive, or flash based NAND memory like the iPhone? Probably the biggest question to be answered is will Apple stick with 1.8 drives which allow for huge capacities (80gig+) but will suck the battery dry with a widescreen. Or move the lineup to completely flash based NAND which is a lot more battery life friendly, but would limit capacities to 16 gig or maybe 32 at a stretch.

Toss of a coin – I say they do 16 & 32gig NAND, and 80gig hard drive version for those that want it but understand the battery life wont be the greatest.

New Nano iPods

Probably. There have been images posted on the net of a new Nano which is basically a square looking Nano with a widescreen. Or if you want to look at it another way – a 5G ipod with a smaller scroll wheel and all the “blank space” trimmed away.

While some have scorned the look of this supposed Nano 2G – I think it looks great. The current Nano looked awesome – until I got one in my hands. The screen is way too small to be anything other than a reference to the song playing. And once I got used to looking at movies and pictures on my normal iPod, losing all those features sucked.

So bring on the Fat Boy Nano. And gimme an orange one.

Ringtones

Download ringtones for your iPhone via the iTunes store? Upgrade a already purchased song so it can be used as a ringtone (another name for paying for the same thing twice).

This is a widely rumoured and expected feature. While it probably makes a lot of sense to the roughly 1 million people that have an iPhone – its pretty useless to the couple of Billion people that haven’t and wont (or at least can’t yet)

While I think it’s something Apple will probably do – its appeal is going to be pretty limited after the initial announcement. A bit like TV Shows and Movies outside the US iTunes store…. STILL WAITING STEVE!!

New iTunes 8.0

Well it wouldn’t be an Apple Pod release without a new iTunes ;) Especially if Ringtones are added.

More movie / DRM free stuff

With any luck there will be more movie studios to add to the lineup and maybe another music label going DRM free.

My guess would be Sony. Warners have their head shoved up their ass at the moment and same for Universal. Sony have seen the light and giving up on their ATRAC format and stores. They need money and some positive loving after flopping with PS3.

One more thing…. Beatles?

Will the Beatles be added to the iTunes store? I’d say yes, probably, maybe… Yes. It’s time.

All the solo stuff is on the store, it will be a great publicity thing to get new iPod sales going, Xmas is only a few months away.

With Leopard coming out next month and the focus being on that – Apple will want this iPod news and hype to go for a few weeks.

80% right?

Well that’s my thoughts on what to expect at the event. I’ll probably get about 80% of it right, completly miss something else. Should be a fairly major event, looking forward to seeing the show.