All good things come to those who wait. That could be the motto for Apple fans anxiously awaiting what new goodies emerge from the folks in Cupertino.
If you are looking for Apple to introduce the long-awaited CDMA iPhone for Verizon customers, you will likely need to cool your heels until the March financial quarter of 2011, according to a prominent analyst out with his predictions for the upcoming year. Additionally, if you have your eye on an iPad 2, Apple’s second-generation tablet, you may need to wait until the flowers of Spring.
“We are modeling for Apple to launch a CDMA version of the iPhone at Verizon in the March-11 quarter,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors Monday. The iPhone 5 will appear this summer with NFC capability, allowing you to make credit card purchases with your handset, the analyst predicts.
However, knowing the long and winding road of rumors the CDMA story has taken, Munster isn’t saying a CDMA iPhone is a sure thing, giving it a 95 percent probability of happening in his timeframe.
If you are looking for a sure thing, Munster sees the probability of Apple introducing an App Store for the Mac as a 100 percent certainty. The much-reported advent of a Mac App Store would build on the proven success of stores for the iPhone and iPad.
Another 100 percent prediction by Munster is that Apple will introduce a new version — “Lion” — of its OSX for Macs. The analyst sees the software upgrade appearing in the summer.
Services less certain to appear are some iTunes cloud service that leverages Apple’s growing server resources and the iTunes gradual migration online. Munster only gives an 80 percent chance of Apple coming to some agreement with carriers to offer subsidies encouraging subscribers to buy an iPad, rather than an Android alternative.
If Munster’s predictions seem too middle-of-the-road, you can check out a conservative outlook on Apple’s plans, as well as a cutting-edge projection.
