With less than a week until Steve Jobs takes the stage for a longer-than-usual 2 hour keynote speech at MacWorld 2007, rumors of new Apple products are in full banshee wail. As AppleSwitcher’s very own Fred N. remarked, even Apple seems to be hinting this MacWorld will be on par with the biggest MacWorlds in recent years.

iPhone? This would be the biggest announcement of any. The market for an iPod that takes calls is estimated to be massive. If it’s done right. Big if, but of all companies that can do it, Apple’s most likely to.

iTV? Also very big, if it were to occur, would be Apple’s full entry into the living room. The device would merge the PC with the television with the stereo with the movie and music collection with the iTunes Store. Not a small job that.
(Google search results for “iphone rumors” vs. “itv rumors” are currently running 4.5:1)

Neither? Something else? The iPhone rumor has been echoing through these halls for over 2 years, and every time it’s next year.

Certainly OS X 10.5 “Leopard” demonstrations will be in order, as will the usual announcements of upgrades to Apple products like the iLife family, iWork family, .Mac service, and Apple’s not-insubstantial line of professional creative software titles like Aperture and Final Cut. Mac Minis and Mac Pro lines stand to see a processor upgrade also.

In a way, Apple doesn’t have to release a thing this MacWorld because the massive attention from all the product release speculation (this very post, natch) and publicity will surely sell more iPods and Macs as is. But that’s part of the fun of early January every year — Apple raises the bar for itself, Jobs puts himself on the spot, and we see if he can possibly rise above it and top the speculation.