My hope and predictions for tomorrow Apple event

Tomorrow Apple is hosting a media event presumably for iPad announcement.

From the invite sent to the media, we can for sure bet that Apple will announce the next iPad revision. And this is exactly what it will be, a revision, not a redesign. Rumours and leaks around the web in the last few months pretty much spoiled the event IMHO. So, why call the press just to show something looking more and more to the iPad 1.5? I think we'll see more than that. Here is why.

Usually, around this time of the year, Apple call the media to show the world a preview of the next release of iOS. Also, if Tim Cook's words are to be taken seriously, the tablet market is about to become larger than the PC market. Also, iPad "killers" are in the rear mirror. Well, kind of. So, I expect Apple to preview some cool stuff specifically for the iPad in order to keep its lead on the tablet market. Previewing new iOS APIs is nice but should (could) be waiting this year WWDC. And let's face it, the pace of evolution of iOS is decreasing because it is more and more of a mature operating system. So the attention turns to features that people directly use on their device.

On the side, we could see some of iLife apps too ported to the iPad. That would make sense.

Finally, a word on MobileMe. If Apple is to talk about its internet services offering, I hope it is to make the iPad less dependent on iTunes for syncing content. Right now this just doesn't make sense to depend on iTunes to put content on the iPad. Signs points to that. Steve Jobs said via email that MobileMe would get a lot better in 2011. MobileMe is no longer available in traditional retail store and could be released on the Mac App Store, Apple seems to standardize its services around the use of the Apple ID and they made a few services of MobileMe with iOS 4.2. Not to mention the North Carolina data centre built recently for Apple own usage (iTunes and MobileMe according to Apple officials). So there is room for hope here.

Stay tuned for on update to this post after the announcements.