With reports that Mac sales may continue to flatten, or may have declined slightly when compared to last year, there is a growing amount of speculation on the form and contents of the next generation Mac hardware. Depending on which story you believe, these product refreshes may be on time or somewhat delayed.

Unlike the days when Apple used PowerPC chips, it's fairly easy nowadays to grasp when a new Mac may be in the offing. All it takes is a look at Intel's processor roadmap, and the introduction of major new designs. So with the launch of the Ivy Bridge family, which has begun to ship, it seems inevitable that new Mac hardware will come real soon now. Indeed, you can even search for a set of benchmarks said to be based on the new Macs running OS 10.8 Mountain Lion.

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As speculation about the possibilities of the next Mac notebook revision heat up, some are wondering whether the MacBook Pro will become just another MacBook Air? Maybe it will be lighter, thinner, and perhaps contain a longer-lasting battery. At the same time, with the arrival of Intel's Ivy Bridge chips, it'll run faster too.

It sounds good so far. But I won't speculate as to when you'll see them in the stores.

There will also likely be a wider selection of solid state drives, and maybe prices will begin to come down to the point where you don't go broke having a larger storage capacity. An SSD means much faster start times, quicker app launching, faster file copying and so on and so forth.

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You'll notice that the ongoing speculation about the "inevitable" arrival of an Apple "smart" TV is beginning to die down somewhat. While so-called industry analysts were jumping all over themselves claiming you'll see such a beast by fall, now there are stories that this new gadget won't arrive until next year, and maybe not until the year after.

At the same time, the rumor sites have been busy suggesting that Apple has been sampling parts for the new product, maybe not always aware of the fact that Apple may sample components for all sorts of gear, but only green lights a very few. Most never leave the prototype stage.

Now I can personally attest to the fact that some Apple products never seeing the light of day. Back in the 1990s, before my media credentials caused me to be tossed out of the group, I was a part of an Apple program called "Customer Quality Feedback" or "CQF," where prerelease Apple products, both OS and hardware, were given out to some customers, under appropriate NDAs, for their feedback.

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If you follow such things carefully, you'll notice that Apple's stock has taken a huge beating in recent days, not because of expectations of poor sales in March financial quarter, but as the result of fears and, perhaps, profit taking. What fears? Well, consider AT&T's report of a big drop in smartphone activations for the March quarter. On the other hand, 78% of those activations were iPhones, and it's normal for sales to dip after the holidays. Besides, it's not that AT&T is the only carrier to carry the iPhone. Worry instead about companies that make that other 22%.

The Wall Street freakout ended when Apple announced financial results for the March quarter that were second only to the December quarter in 2011 right after the trading day ended, predictably causing a big rise in the stock price in after-hours trading.

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