All eyes on Apple CEO at Macworld

Here's where Apple is likely headed.

— It is going to the movies, likely announcing Tuesday the addition of movies for rent at its online iTunes Store for $3.99 apiece for 24 hours, the common window Hollywood has imposed on other digital movie rental services.

Apple will have lots of competition in this arena, but Apple "is setting the table for the consumer movie experience for the next 25 years," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. "Today it doesn't matter but five, 10 years from now, it'll be how everybody will be watching movies."

Apple has reportedly secured deals with 20th Century Fox and Disney studios, and may be close to signing deals with Warner Bros. and Paramount.

The movie rental component on iTunes and a product upgrade are expected to also boost the anemic sales of Apple TV, the set-top box launched at last year's Macworld that delivers video and other multimedia content from your PC to a television. Munster estimates about 1.8 million Apple TV devices were sold through 2007 and expects another 2.9 million units to ship this year.

— It's going on a diet. A prevailing theory is that Jobs will unveil an ultra-portable notebook, weighing somewhere between 2 and 4 pounds, that would fill a hole in Apple's computer lineup. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu predicts the slim "MacBook Mini" could be priced at $1,500 to $2,000 and could feature a flash memory drive instead of a standard hard drive to reduce the weight, boost battery life, and make it more rugged and reliable.

— And it's going faster. As in 3G, a speedier cellular network option for Web browsing or other data features on the iPhone. Apple may not be ready to discuss this at Macworld, but its carrier partner AT&T Inc. has already revealed that a 3G iPhone is planned for 2008.

Even though Apple is staying mum until Tuesday, it's still got everybody else talking.

Macworld runs Tuesday through Friday at the Moscone convention center in San Francisco.

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