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While Mac aficionados are filling forums with comments, hopes and critiques of a rumored fourth-generation iPod complete with 2-inch video screen, the company itself has nothing to say. Analysts, however, called the rumored upgrade "fairly likely."
The rumor reporters hang their hat on the fact that Toshiba, one of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) biggest suppliers, announced in June that it was working on a 60 GB hard drive and that Apple was committed to buying it. In August, Toshiba released a 1.8-inch, 60 GB disk drive.
The device will be for still images, not movies, according to reports.
Holiday Toy
Citing "highly reliable sources," ThinkSecret said that the latest version of Apple's iconic MP3 player will allow photo viewing and be released in 30 to 60 days with a price tag of US$499.
"This is still a rumor, albeit a fairly likely one," Paul Jackson, principal analyst at Forrester Research, told MacNewsWorld. "But [it] is looking like a photo viewer rather than a video player."
"Apple [and] Steve Jobs have repeatedly said that consumers aren't ready for portable video yet, and they are probably right. It doesn't map to an existing behavior, there is very little legitimate content, etc. So a more likely device is something which works well with iPhoto," Jackson said.
Home Sweet Home
ThinkSecret played up the addition of a video-out port, but AppleInsider, citing its own anonymous source, said that the player might feature a greatly advanced dock connector, not a video output jack.
The source said it would use a much improved "Home on iPod" Mac OS X software technology, still in development. Talk of "Home on iPod," which would allow users to transfer their home directory to their iPod, has been around for at least a year.
No Big Deal
Although the rumor mill is churning with excitement over the next iPod release, Forrester's Jackson does not see it as a big leap.
"Apple iPods have been looking increasingly feature-lacking as color screen devices emerge," he said. "This is Apple playing catch-up. If the device is a significant step forward -- i.e. beyond album art work and photos -- then the competition -- which seems to have become obsessed with video playback -- may be hit hard. But this is fairly unlikely."
