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Boom, its 2009, and out of the gate on an credit crunch electronic companies around the world begin to lift the curtain on new product launches for the new year.

Can you feel the excitement? Its CES time and Macworld. The internet is all a flutter about rumors about countless manufacturers. But the two that stand out the most is Palm and Apple.

So, first off, Apple has admitted that good ol Steve Jobs is sick – but not on his death bed.

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve [#

Does this mean that Apple via Phil Schiller isn't going to announce anything important. To the contrary, I believe that Apple will make some product announcements to show that Apple is NOT Steve Jobs rather it is a company that is filled with very smart people with very good products.

Talking about deathbed we move to Palm. The granddaddy of PDA's has been stirring the hype pot a little promising a year filled with Palm "newness". Maybe people speculate that Garnet (The VERY LONG IN THE TOOTH PalmOS) will finally be killed and replaced with a extremely modern os called "Nova."

Palm is rumored to be launching a smartphone on Thursday that runs Nova, its next-generation operating system [...].

The report, which cites “a trusted source,” says the device will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide under the touch screen.

Palm’s next-generation operating system has been delayed several times but is regarded as crucial to the company’s chances of regaining a foothold in the mobile-computing market.

Nova, based on Linux, is expected to bring the Palm brand operating system into the modern era of computing. The beginning of Palm’s decline as a mobile-computing innovator can be traced to the 2003 decision to separate into two companies, one that developed the operating system (PalmSource) and one that developed the hardware (Palm).#

For many people who follow the Palm scene, they are used to this song and dance. But based upon the recent major cash infusion by Elevation Partners I think Palm actually my have an ace up their sleeve. If Palm is unable to really steal CES this week the sheer survival of the company is in peril.