The 2011 Christmas holiday will be just a memory in a few days’ time, and our thoughts then turn to the new year and what 2012 might bring. For those of us covering the Apple beat, those ruminations include the first full year without Steve Jobs and what kind of new wonderment the team left in his wake might bring us -- some of which might still have involved his magic touch.

By all accounts, 2011 was a successful year for Apple, and end users benefitted with the addition of Thunderbolt across the Mac line as well as refreshed -- if not quite completely new -- iPhone and iPad products. But while most of Apple’s products this year were evolutionary, they set the stage for what could be a revolutionary 2012 across several different product lines. With that in mind, here’s what we’re looking forward to next year.

The Forecast is (i)Cloudy

Apple successfully transitioned from MobileMe to iCloud in 2011, much to the joy of iOS device owners everywhere. But we think there’s a lot of untapped potential yet to come, and iCloud should really kick up some dust next year. For one thing, we hope to see an extension of iTunes Match we’ll call “iTunes Everywhere” -- imagine being able to log into your iTunes account from any web browser and have full access to all of your content, plus the ability to stream it from anywhere.

Dropbox may have rebuffed an acquisition offer from Steve Jobs, but Apple isn’t likely to let it and competitors like SugarSync and YouSendIt dominate cloud syncing between computers and mobile devices. We expect that Apple will introduce a more wide-reaching cloud sync initiative next year, something more along the lines of Bitcasa, the service currently in beta which allows you to “cloudify” any part of your hard drives. We’re not likely to see Mac OS X 10.8 until 2013 at the earliest, and Cupertino surely won’t want to wait that long to cement a true cloud strategy for the desktop.

All-New MacBooks

The MacBook Air finally came into its own in late 2010, and analysts are now predicting that Apple will follow up this success by carrying its “thin is in” mantra across the entire MacBook product line. Rumors have been flying for months that Apple will introduce a completely redesigned MacBook in early 2012, shedding excess weight and perhaps making the laptop more of a “tablet plus” kind of device.

Of course, to get there, Apple will have to make some concessions. The internal SuperDrive is likely to be a casualty of the new thin form factor, although the small external accessory used for the MacBook Air will likely work fine in its place (for those that need it, anyway). It will be particularly interesting to see how slimmed down Apple can get the MacBook Pro without sacrificing the ports that power users demand -- but if anyone can do it, Apple can. Finally, the Mac is rumored to be getting a Retina Display-style boost, although that seems more likely to correspond with Mac OS X 10.8 which is still a little ways off.

iPhone 5

The October introduction of the iPhone 4S was an admittedly somber affair, and many users reacted the same way, with a knee-jerk “ho-hum” greeting to a refreshed handset that looked identical to its predecessor after eagerly awaiting an all-new form factor. (Personally, we were quite pleased by the addition of Siri, a better rear camera and 64GB of storage at last.) But the stage is now set for next year’s iPhone 5, which will surely deviate from the current playbook -- at least a little.

So what to expect? A bigger screen is likely in the cards, with Apple retaining the existing iPhone 4S for those who want something smaller and cheaper. 2012 is expected to be the year 4G LTE finally starts gaining traction, and it seems the iPhone may finally climb on board that train -- assuming Cupertino’s engineers can perform some magic to extend the battery life, that is. And yes, we expect the iPhone 5 will adopt a sleek new look that radically breaks from the iPhone 4/4S mold in the same way those handsets differed from the iPhone 3G/3GS before them. As far as when: The crystal ball seems to indicate Apple will continue the new fall product launch for the iPhone, so better find something else to do in June from now on.

iPad 3, iPad nano?

Like the iPhone 5, another iPad (likely in early 2012) is a safe bet. The rumor mill calls for a slightly thicker iPad 3 to accommodate the fancy new “faux Retina Display” screen, and better cameras (at least for the rear) are also expected. We think it’s also a safe bet that Apple will introduce 4G LTE here first for the usual Wi-Fi + 3G models, especially since the larger battery is less likely to take an extreme hit on a tablet. There are also rumblings of a glasses-free 3D display like the one shown above, but we wouldn’t be placing any bets on that idea just yet.

It also seems that, despite the protests of former CEO Steve Jobs, Apple will take a bite out of the seven-inch tablet market with some type of “iPad nano,” presumably toward the latter part of 2012. With Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet both selling like hotcakes at $199 and $249 respectively, Apple isn’t likely to leave money on the table for Android competitors to scoop up.

iTV: Apple Television

Since the official Steve Jobs bio hit stores in late October, the rumor mill has been grinding overtime, churning out every conceivable little nugget of information that might confirm Apple is planning their own HDTV set. Most of those assumptions hinge around Jobs’ own claims to have finally “nailed” a consumer-friendly interface for a next-generation television set, believed to revolve around voice-activated technology such as Siri.

We don’t claim to know more than the next guy, but if Apple is planning a real HDTV, you can bet it will involve more than simply moving existing Apple TV technology into an LED-backlight LCD screen. Given the challenge of manufacturing an HDTV -- which is rumored to arrive in three sizes, maxing out at 55 inches -- we also expect an overhaul of the existing ATV box, so that folks who aren’t ready to replace their television can still enjoy many of the same benefits for only $99.

Mac Pro: Resurrection

It’s been something of a cliffhanger year for Mac Pro fans -- the lone Mac desktop with internal expansion ports hasn’t been significantly updated in years, and has been shut out of this year’s Thunderbolt party after being passed over for a new model this year. While many have predicted that Apple may soon sound the death knell for the Mac Pro, we think the company is just biding its time for an exciting makeover in 2012.

Among the leading speculation is a new, significantly smaller casing for the Mac Pro. Let’s face it, this dinosaur is a holdover from the Power Mac G5 era -- built like a tank, with cooling fans so loud you’ll feel right at home the next time you’re on an airplane. While Thunderbolt will negate the need for many PCI expansion cards, longtime Mac Pro users will still want them anyway for legacy hardware. Personally we’d like to see the Mac Pro split into two: One box for the core system, hard drive and SuperDrive, and another expansion box to house additional internal drives, PCI cards and the like which can be kept off to the side for day to day use.

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(Images courtesy Cult of Mac, MacRumors, MacGateway and Guilherme Marins Schasiepen)