Quick, you guys: Quit your jobs, team up with each other, and form a research firm specializing in Apple punditry. As a group, your predictions would likely be significantly closer to being on-target than those of a bunch of well-known analyst firms where serious moolah is made guessing what Steve Jobs and company are working on.

That, at least, is my conclusion after conducting an experiment that I called Technologizer’s WWDC Prediction Challenge. I invited Technologizer community members to take a survey involving WWDC predictions, then tallied the results and considered any prediction to be official if the majority of survey respondents made it. You didn’t get every single data point right–and failed to anticipate the major changes Apple made to its laptop lineup–but your iPhone predictions were very close to perfect (unlike those of many bloggers and analysts). Overall, I’m impressed–and I think I’ll repeat the experiment before future Apple product launches.

After the jump, a full accounting of how your guesses squared with WWDC reality.

What you predicted: Apple would announce at least one iPhone today.

What happened: It did announce one or more iPhones today. One, to be precise.

Bottom line: You were right!

What you predicted: The new iPhone would have a higher-resolution autofocus camera that did video, more storage, a faster CPU, longer battery life, more RAM, a compass, and a new case. It wouldn’t have an OLED screen, multitasking, a thinner case, built-in iMovie, a high-resolution screen, flash, a light-up Apple logo, a smaller or larger screen, or a physical keyboard.

What happened: The iPhone 3G S has a higher-resolution autofocus camera that does video, more storage, longer battery life, and a compass. Apple says it’s much faster without explaining how it accomplished the feat, but it’s likely that it has a faster CPU and more RAM. It doesn’t have an OLED screen, multitasking, a thinner case, a high-resolution screen, flash, a light-up Apple logo, a smaller or larger screen, or a physical keyboard. I haven’t seen a 3G S in person yet, but the case seems unchanged. Oh, and it does have some built-in video editing features, but I didn’t hear Apple describe them as “iMovie.”

Bottom line: You got most of the specs dead-on, and avoided any wacky prognostications that turned out to be baseless.

What you predicted: Apple wouldn’t release a tablet.

What happened: Apple didn’t release a tablet.

Bottom line: Ding ding ding!

.What you predicted: Apple wouldn’t announce any new Macs.

What happened: Apple announced and shipped significantly new 13- and 15-inch laptops, and minor revisions to the 17-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. It didn’t any new desktops.

The bottom line: Nobody’s perfect. There wasn’t much scuttlebutt about new Macs before the keynote, although Daring Fireball’s John Gruber correctly predicted that the 13-inch unibody MacBook would become a MacBook Pro.

There’s been plenty of speculation about the possibility of at least minor upgrades to Apple’s Mac line being announced at WWDC. As a group, you guys aren’t buying it–no Mac model received a majority of votes.

What you predicted: Apple would announce a new iPod Touch, and wouldn’t announce any other iPods or other random hardware.

What happened: It didn’t, although the iPhone OS 3.0 software update will make all existing iPods Touch feel like new devices.

The bottom line: Remember this: Apple announces new iPods in September. The Touch is an iPod.

What you predicted: Apple would announce Snow Leopard, but wouldn’t unveil any other software and services.

What happened: Apple announced Snow Leopard.

Bottom line: It would have been bizarre if you’d predicted that Snow Leopard wasn’t going to get its day.

Not bad, folks. And aren’t you glad you didn’t tell me that we’d see an iPhone Nano onstage today?

 
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