Apple facing high expectations at Macworld

While the staff at Engadget prepares for Steve Jobs' verbal onslaught tomorrow at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, investors will be dancing around today with visions of new Apple products in their heads.

This time last year, Jobs dropped the iPhone on the world and the cellphone market hasn't been the same since. Instead of giving into the death grip wireless carriers had on handsets and customers as well, Jobs gave the power to itself and the customer. So the world will be asking today: what exactly is up Steve's sleeve? Answers abound, but probably just a few key people really know what's going to go down this week at Macworld. Right now, Jobs has those people bound and gagged behind his Macworld stage. Just kidding.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s stock will start the day slightly over $172 per share after touching $200 just a few weeks ago. If there is any hype, it can't possibly be bigger than the iPhone that was rumored to be announced a year ago -- and was. Could there be any higher expectation tomorrow when Jobs announces ... whatever he will announce? Very doubtful. Whatever comes out of Apple's coffers tomorrow during Jobs' keynote will probably disappoint the market compared to the nuttiness the iPhone announcement generated.

Does that mean Apple's future is dimming? Not at all -- but the company may have set itself up for media questions like "is this all Apple could announce?" come tomorrow unless it can surpass the market buzz the iPhone generated. Two candidates have emerged: a mini-laptop that weighs a few pounds and a smaller iPhone that works on faster 3G wireless data networks. Would a newer, smaller iPhone kick the Apple investment community into high gear? Absolutely.