Solar power? An iPhone 6 with a screen that spills-over the sides? A virtually comprehensive, computerized iWatch?

These are just a few of the new, special features/products Apple is rumored to be planning to release to the world either this year or in the near future. Will they prove to be game-changers? The verdict is and will be out for quite some time. However, these new leaks (which almost never happened under Jobs’ wildly successful tenure at Apple during the early years of this century…) sure do gin up excitement for a technology company that has struggled to recapture the magical and imaginative aura of the late Steve Jobs. While that once-in-a-lifetime energy is impossible to repeat, this year may prove to put some of the shine back on that timeless logo once again. Maybe this year is the perfect time for a new adaptation of that iconic apple to premiere alongside its rumored line of innovative products? It won’t be the first time and it shouldn’t be the last.

Still, there are countless questions at this point until new products are released, tested and reviewed by the public.

But what’s really NeXT for this technology giant?

The spaceship Apple campus? Yes. Expansion into the heart of San Francisco for a new generation of Apple street cred? An inventive clothing line? Who knows?

One of the most spectacular achievements of Apple has been how it has simultaneously defined itself as a technology and lifestyle brand. Competitor Bill Gates is well-versed in this strategy as well (Microsoft Windows and his vision of the ever-expanding business community). People feel connected to Microsoft and Apple and with that comes loyalty, especially given the required investment it takes to own just one of their products.

But what about that second product…what will get the masses to make that critical second Apple purchase that will reconnect them with the company?

Just as Punxsutawney Phil saw his own shadow this past Sunday (which sadly means there will be six more weeks of winter), Tim Cook and Co. need to stop hiding in the cool shadow of Steve Jobs in Cupertino, California and finally step out in front of it in the hot sun to definitively declare to the world (in a new kind of presentation) the next generation of Apple, Inc. has arrived, post-Jobs.

The time has come for Apple and its innovators to show us (and that guy with the light-faded blue jeans, gray New Balance 992 sneakers and black turtleneck watching and waiting with unrelenting anticipation) something that is amazingly cool.

Actually, that doesn’t quite get everybody excited. Let’s try that again.

The future products from Apple need to be insanely great!

That’s how they move forward and return the world to the timeless, healthy mentality of, “an apple a day…”