Today, while reading some of my Mac feeds, I came across a post in MacNN noting analysts at the research firm Piper Jaffray who suggest that the next generation of iPods will be based on the iPhone’s touch-screen interface.
To me this seem an almost sure bet. However, there would be some concern about cannibalizing some of the iPhone sales if these new iPods were too capable. For instance, if the new iPod was a duplicate of the iPhone, without phone capabilities, with WiFi, Internet browsing and perhaps more memory, wouldn’t it be more tempting for many users then the iPhone itself? Especially if the cost was $100 to $200 dollars cheaper then the iPhone? Yes, I know it wouldn’t be a phone, but hear me out.
My reasons for thinking this is that by using the touch-screen interface of the iPhone, Apple’s OS X would be it’s operating system. How long will it be before the iPhone is totally hacked…probably not too long. An iPod based upon the same technology would soon be hacked as well. What would be the attractiveness of the WiFi iPod I described above, if Skype was running on it? Maybe it can’t be done but then…?
For this very reason Apple may decide that an iPod based upon the iPhone will not have Wifi or at least Internet capabilities.
In any regard, an iPhone based iPod would also be a smart financial move for Apple. Sharing parts with the iPhone would lower production cost and give Apple an even larger profit margin.
The analyst at Piper Jaffray expect that the new iPhone based iPod will be announced later this year or at the latest at the MacWorld event in January 2008.
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