The biggest new consumer electronic product launch this year has to be Apple's iPhone. But it doesn't stop there if all the rumours and speculations in recent weeks have any credibility. Apple watchers and investment banks alike are all predicting a huge Apple Christmas this year with a slew of new product launches to target the year end shopping season.

Let's start with the gold plated investment bank who should be in the know - Goldman Sachs. Acccording to Apple Insider, Goldman Sachs' Apple analyst, David Bailey, has predicted a series of new product releases before the end of the year including a new iMac and a new fullscreen iPod.

I think the new iMac is pretty much a done deal. It's reputed to be a brushed aluminium model (like the Mac Pro) and photos have surfaced showing what purports to be the new keyboard. I can't say I like the look of the new keyboard - white keys on aluminium don't seem to go very well.  It should be interesting to see how Apple improves on the very elegant current iMac design.

The fullscreen iPod - rumours about this device has been circling the net for the past two years.  I say we have the fullscreen iPod right there in the iPhone, just take away the phone capabilities and you have the 6th generation iPod.  What complicates matter is a recently surfaced video that purports to be the next generation iPod interface. Unfortunately all the videos have been removed from YouTube at Apple's request. The gist of it is that the interface shown in the video is not a widescreen fullscreen interface but an evolution of the current interface. It clearly does not have the sparkle of the iPhone interface. That's not good, I won't settle for anything less than a iPhonesque 6th generation iPod.

Rumours are also circulating about the impending release of an ultra-portable 12" Macbook weighing less than 1.5kg compared to the current model's 2.3kg heft.  I personally see some credibility behind this rumour as what is missing in the Apple laptop lineup is a tablet or ultra-portable to target the emerging ultra-mobile PC market. 

Now going back to where we started - the iPhone. Hot on the heels of iPhone v1.0 are rumours of a lower cost version of the iPhone as well as a 3G enabled version. I think the 3G version is simply a matter of time as the lack of which will severely curtail the success of the iPhone in the Asian and European markets that have rapidly adopted 3G. But a low cost iPhone - I'm not sure about that. What can they cut out of the iPhone to reduce its costs ? It's already only a 4Gb or 8Gb device, so storage can't really go any lower.  They can potentially release an iPhone without the fancy user interface, thus simplifying and reducing the size of the device. But that defeats the purpose of buying an iPhone - it's all about the sexy interface.

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