“2008. There’s something in the air.” What does that slogan mean? On Tuesday, Steve Jobs will introduce whatever it is they have lurking in Cupertino.

Could it be movie rentals through iTunes? A revamped Apple TV with DVR? Yet another, better and cooler iPod?

Or perhaps, something innovative and game changing (yeah lame phrase, but bear with me).

With laptop sales eclipsing desktops, and iPods and iPhones leading to a perpetually mobile generation, wouldn’t it make sense for Apple to push connectivity everywhere?

What if Apple released a sub-notebook with the usual suspects and “one more thing” - WiMAX.

Paired with the 3G iPhone we will see in 2008 and Back to my Mac, it would be a powerful product to accelerate their growth in this powerful market segment.

What tea leaves am I reading to think this? A curious announcement timed for this coming Tuesday.

Sprint recently announced that the company is on track to begin offering their Xohm WiMax service in April of this year…the New York Times reported that the soft launch is set for this Tuesday.

(Via Sprint to Soft-Launch Xohm on Tuesday - dslreports.com.)

Sprint did a deal with Amazon for EVDO in the Kindle, why not Apple for a WiMAX enabled laptop?

Apple’s deal with AT&T certainly said nothing about WiFI or WiMAX, but may have locked them out of embedding EVDO.

With AT&T’s CEO blowing the lid on Apple’s 2008 iPhone plans it would be sweet revenge for Apple to work with Sprint.

Apple could build a strong relationship with Sprint, while fulfilling their obligations to AT&T.

One can dream and speculate. We will know on Tuesday.