What to expect from Apple in 2016

LOS ANGELES — What to expect from Apple in 2016?

Let’s face it: The new year has got to be brighter for the world’s largest tech firm, right?

The previous year saw more new product introductions than ever from Apple, but with a type of muted reaction the folks in Cupertino, Calif., just aren’t accustomed to.

The new Apple Watch was the year’s most hyped new tech product, but was no iPhone or iPad in terms of blockbuster status. You just don’t see a lot of people wearing it or talking about it, and by the end of the year, the Watch was discounted by $100 to get sales moving. Can you remember ever seeing an Apple product heavily marked down before?

Apple Music, the company’s subscription music answer to Spotify and Pandora, was a respectable try, but not game changing, as we’ve come to expect from Apple. Instead, it deviated from the traditional Apple model of focused and drop-dead simple and tried to be too many things to too many people.

The new iPhone 6S is still the best smartphone out there and sold very well (nearly 50 million units in the first two weeks). But when’s the last time you used the heavily touted new features such as 3D Touch and Live Photos?

Exactly.

The brightest spot, at least critically, was for Apple's revamp of Apple TV, the set-top box that brought Siri voice search to the remote, and raves for the interface. Many reviewers singled out Apple TV as the best of the streaming media boxes. The Apple TV was Apple at it's best — elegant, sleek and cutting edge.

In 2016, you can expect to see a new Apple Watch, expected in March, and Watch 2.0 hopefully will answer the question, why do I need this thing anyway? Will the watch-face not go dark all the time? Will it have better battery life? Will apps become useful?

Analysts also expect a smaller iPhone to replace the discontinued iPhone 5C in the spring and a new edition of the iPad that will attempt to stem the tide of two years of declining sales.

In June, look for Apple to sneak peek iOS 10, the upgrade to Apple’s mobile operating system, and the latest OSX Mac operating system update.

In the fall, like clockwork, look for the new iPhone 7, which we expect to have a new design, something all the non-S iPhone editions have had to date. Apple fan sites have already begun the speculation — the phone will be thinner than ever, and without the headphone jack. All music connections will be via the Lightning input instead or via wireless Bluetooth headphones.

By using just the Lightning port, "Apple uses newer technology, and opens more possibilities for sound," says Mark Gurman, a senior editor with the 9to5 Mac blog. "It also future-proofs Apple for a time when phones are even thinner than headphone jacks and gives them room for larger batteries and better camera systems. Anything Apple can remove from the phone is a benefit for them."

For 2016, Apple needs to turn the Watch into a mass market item, and drum up a killer new iPhone, says Gurman. Additionally, it needs to streamline the lineup of Macintosh computers, which has gotten too big, he adds.

“This is a high margin product that has seen growing sales, while the iPad sales have started to diminish. Apple needs to focus on the Mac more than ever,” Gurman says.

What features do you want to see in the new iPhone? Let’s chat about it on Twitter, where I’m @jeffersongraham. Happy new year everyone.