Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its last earnings report declared that 2007 was going to be an exciting year for the company. It may be exciting in all the wrong ways, however, as legal battles are already shaping up over its next major product and with a continuing investigation into stock options irregularities. It will be both a great year for products, and an interesting year to watch how this company makes it through some upcoming challenges. How Apple starts the year with announcements about its earnings over the holidays could have an important impact on the stock.

In Apple's last meeting in October, Peter Oppenheimer said to expect $6 to $6.2 billion of revenue and $0.70 to $0.73 earnings per share.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) calls for better-than-expected results, somewhere in the vicinity of $0.79 per share and $6.38 billion. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster also expects earnings to come out a few pennies higher, and Munster often seems to read Apple retail better than other analysts.

With analysts betting on above-expected earnings, and such signs as iPods flying off the shelves and high traffic to Apple retail and websites, the money looks to be on Apple to beat earnings. But what's your vote?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

You may be wondering if Apple is facing a brain drain, with three of its top executive officers leaving since March.  Apple confirmed Friday that its senior vice president and primary legal officer (her official title was "General Counsel and Secretary"), Nancy Heinen, left the company, but gave no reason for her departure.  She was the highest ranking female in the Apple organization.

She follows two other top officials who left in March: Avie Tevanian, chief software technology officer, and Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president of the iPod Division. 

The timing of Heinen's departure was a surprise, since it was announced just yesterday that Apple Computer won its lawsuit against Apple Corps.

What do all three have in common? They all joined Apple from NeXT. In fact, the only remaining high-level NeXT exec, other than Steve Jobs of course, is Bertrand Serlet, who is senior vice president of software engineering.  Wonder if he'll soon be following the others?

Apple is not saying much about Heinen's departure other than to confirm it happened.  Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, will oversee the legal department until Heinen's replacement is named.