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Minority Report: Apple to rock us with new iPods?
Rumour mill in full swing…

By Seb Janacek

Published: Monday 08 September 2008

What does Apple have in store for its upcoming press event? Seb Janacek has a few ideas.

The web is buzzing with speculation over tomorrow's 'special' press event, entitled 'Let's Rock'. The September events are now becoming a traditional diary event for Apple, normally used to announce new iPods.

Given the iPod theme of the event invite it looks like the tradition is about to be continued.

The consensus - based on posts by "friends of friends who work at Apple" and "I have it from a very good source" scattered across the web - is that Apple will revert back to its classic stick, iPod nano form feature that proved so successful as a replacement for the already successful mini.

The current nano is a hard beast to love; its chubby form robs it of its predecessor's elegance. There are the usual leaked images of nanos doing the rounds online, although given none have been removed at the behest of Apple's legal team, the dedicated Photoshoppers may be wide of the mark.

The other iPod likely to feature an update is the Touch. These days most product updates for the iPod Touch come via software updates so there are unlikely to be major departures. There may be some subtle changes to case design to tie it closer to the iPhone but these are likely to be cosmetic.

The company may choose to discontinue the smaller capacity 8GB device, leaving it with 16GB and 32GB configurations.

Apple may also drop the Touch's price to make it more competitive with the iPhone, even with its 18-month contract. Right now, £329 for a 32GB or £269 for a 16GB Touch looks pretty hefty.

This would tie in with the announcement of a major product transition that Apple included in its recent earnings report, which it said would cause the company's margins to drop from 34.1 per cent to 31.5 per cent over the next few months.

Alternatively the event could showcase a bolder move with an increased transition to touch screens for some iPods.

Another possibility is the release of a new version of iTunes. There's much talk about iTunes offering interactive albums, allowing users to access photos, lyrics and other goodies when a new album is released.

And by the way, has anyone else noticed the recent lack of marketing attention on the iPod? It's strange we've heard so little about the product family since the iPhone was released.

Now iPod owners know how Mac users felt while the little white MP3 player dominated Apple's marketing focus over the past five years or so.

So, for tomorrow's event, bets are on new iPods, new iTunes features and possibly interactive albums. Sounds like a busy schedule.

One of the first bands said to be offering an interactive album is Snow Patrol, which probably gives us all the more reason to hope that the release of a slinky nano is all Jobs announces.