NEW YORK (InvestorPlace) -- After years of consecutive record-breaking quarters, it seems a bit like pointing at the moon to say that Apple(AAPL)
is going to have a successful 2012. Consumer excitement for the
company's products remains high. Wall Street remains rapt by the company
as well. Despite a few months of wiggling, it's not unrealistic to
think AAPL shares could very well hit $500.
Is the company's momentum guaranteed to continue into 2012? After all,
2011 has been a year of refinement rather exciting new goods. The
company's most successful products -- like the iPhone, iPad and MacBook
Air laptops -- saw new releases throughout the year, but all were only
incremental upgrades over previous products. Even Apple's major software
release for the year, the new laptop and desktop operating system Lion,
is an iterative product that brings traditional computers closer in
line with the company's portables in terms of use.
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2012 will not be another year of merely refinement. Much as 2010 was
marked by the release of bold new releases -- particularly the original
iPad -- next year will see Apple release a number of new devices sure to
capture the attention of excited consumers. Here are five big Apple
releases to expect in 2012:
Related: iPhone users loyal to AAPL stock
Apple HDTV
Just weeks after former Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away, the iconic
technologist still was making headlines for a new Apple product. Walter
Isaacson's biography of Jobs quoted the CEO as saying, "I finally
cracked it." The "it" in this case being an Apple high-definition television set
connected to the Internet as well as Apple's iTunes, App Store and
other digital storefronts. The HDTV will be the centerpiece of Apple's
2012 product lineup. Investors take note: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene
Munster believes this TV business could raise Apple's market cap by $100 billion.
Motion Control
A number of Apple patents for motion-control technology -- you can
control what's on the screen by waving your hands in mid-air, as with Microsoft's (MSFT) Kinect device -- have been made public over the past two years, the most recent of which came out Dec. 8 . This release will affect all of Apple's products, from Mac computers to the iPhone. Like the company's voice-control product, Siri ,
Apple's motion control interface has the potential to take something
that already exists in other products and make it immensely popular
through Apple branding. Expect motion control to be a key part of the
Apple HDTV as well.
