The refresh may happen yet, however. Apple (AAPL) has on many occasions uncrated new products on the heels of Macworld. In February of 2008, the company announced new iPhone & iPod touch models. In February of 2006 it debuted the Intel Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi. In January 2005 it uncrated new PowerBooks and a month later, it announced a new iPod mini and an update to iPod photo.

Clearly there’s quite a precedent for post-Macworld announcements, and in all likelihood this year will see a few as well. Certainly, an Apple desktop event later this month or in early February would be an elegant way for the company to dovetail the official release of iLife ’09 with some new desktop hardware, celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh and prove once and for all that it doesn’t need Macworld to publicize new product releases.

Apple is rapidly becoming a minor player in the computer business and may be swallowed up by Sun Microsystems Inc. or another rival.”

–BusinessWeek, February 1996

In the movie “Independence Day,” a PowerBook saves the Earth from destruction. Now it’s time to return the favor. Unfortunately, even devoted Mac addicts must admit that you look a little beleaguered these days: a confusing product line, little inspiration from the top, software developers fleeing.”

–“101 Ways to Save Apple,” Wired, June 1997

In 1997, shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple, Dell’s founder and chairman, Michael S. Dell, was asked at the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo97 how he would fix Apple, then deeply troubled financially. “What would I do?” Dell said. “I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

Little did he know he’d be eating those words a few years later when Apple’s market capitalization surpassed not just Dell’s, but IBM’s as well (as some observers have been predicting for a while now). After the record-breaking quarter it posted yesterday, Apple is today the most valuable computer-maker in the world. Its market capitalization now stands at nearly $162 billion, $6 billion more than that of industry heavyweight IBM. In fact, its market cap is the fourth largest among technology companies, lagging behind only Cisco ($189 billion), Google ($208 billion) and Microsoft ($290 billion). Which is obviously great news for Apple shareholders, as John Murrell notes over at my old stomping grounds, Good Morning Silicon Valley: “… while Google-watchers go gaga over its soaring share price, note that an investor who bought Apple on the same day Google stock debuted in 2004 would have, as of the close of market yesterday, made 40 percent more than if the same money had been put into the search sovereign’s shares.