Okay, so the analysts aren't all that excited about Apple's new hardware. Fair enough. After all, it's all professional-grade equipment, and Apple's big rebound in 1998 came from a consumer revolution: the iMac. Given that Apple currently has two hot new "killer apps" that are obviously consumer-targeted (those would be iTunes and iDVD, for those of you keeping score at home) but which currently require brand-new Power Mac G4 systems to use at their full potential (at least, according to Apple), it's not necessarily all that surprising that Wall Street's looking for something more before it considers Apple to be a horse worth backing again: namely, new consumer Macs.

Those of you that have been paying attention, however, already know that new iMacs are probably only about a month away from reality. After all, every current iMac incarnation has been designated as "end of life" in inventory systems all across this great land, and Apple itself has instituted $200 "instant rebates" on DV+ and Special Edition models. Macworld Expo Tokyo, anyone? Unless Apple is clearing out inventory as an exercise in capitalistic performance art, it's tough to imagine that, come February 20th, there won't be a slew of translucent new space eggs joining Steve onstage.

The real question, then, is this: just what will those new iMacs be packing under their brightly-colored hoods? CD-RW drives are a dead cert; Apple flat-out admitted that it missed the boat on letting consumers burn their own backups and custom music CDs, so the only people not expecting fresh iMacs with "power to burn" are probably the same people who are still waiting for Disney to sign the down payment check on One Infinite Loop. But what else?

Luckily, Mac OS Rumors has all kinds of hip dirt on what those new iMacs will be packing. Sure enough, CD-RW is in the cards (except for the entry-level model, which will keep its CD-ROM drive), but rumor has it that Apple is taking this opportunity to toss the following happy upgrades into the mix: a 4X AGP graphics bus, more RAM, G3s running at up to 700 MHz (and possibly a G4 in the Special Edition), a new audio system, and maybe even that long-term rumorological mainstay, the 17-inch screen. Zowie!

Hang on, though, because there's more. If a refreshed iMac won't be enough to cut it with those sourpuss analysts, Apple is said to be preparing new iBooks to trot out on the runway sometime this spring. Imagine, if you will, a new thinner and lighter enclosure, a 13-inch 1024x768 LCD display, and a 100 MHz system bus; now that the PowerBook G4 has raised the bar on portable performance, the iBook sounds like it's evolving into a slightly more Pismo-like weight class and feature set. Take that, Wall Street!