True video iPod to sport 3.5-inch display, touch-screen click wheel
True video iPod to sport 3.5-inch display, touch-screen click wheel
This video iPod, which has been in development and on the table since before Apple released the 5G iPod last year with video playback, will feature a display that will occupy the entire front face of the device. Sources who have seen the device report that it features a digital click wheel, one that overlays the touch-sensitive display and appears when a finger touches it and disappears when the finger is removed.
It was too good to be true. Just when we thought we might actually have a day free from Apple rumors (after all, doesn’t Microsoft deserve to have the rumor mill to itself for at least a little while?), ThinkSecret has hit us with word that the “true” video iPod is still coming, and that it will have a 4-inch display, rather than the 3.5-inch one that was claimed in earlier rumors.
Apple has been working with at least two other companies to perfect the digital click wheel display technology. While not all the engineering was completed in-house by Apple, sources have said Apple could hold an exclusive license on the technologies it borrowed from other developers for a period of time, limiting the ability of competitors to copy Apple’s design.
Additional details concerning the new iPod have yet to be confirmed, including capacity and a release date, although all indications point to the Spring, possibly as early as late March or early April. During the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs alluded to a major announcement on or around April 1, Apple’s 30th anniversary as a company.
ThinkSecret also reports that the video iPod is on target for a March or April release, pending content deals with studios (which we assume will come through, given that Steve Jobs basically owns Disney now). Of course, even if the video unit is delayed, we assume Stevie will still schedule another big press conference sometime in the next few weeks.
Like previous iPods, sources insist that this video iPod will lack any sort of wireless connectivity, and will continue to connect to televisions using the conventional cabling solution of current models.
While Apple no longer publicly releases the numbers for how many specific iPod models it sells, Think Secret has learned exclusively that during Apple’s most recent December quarter, the company moved 3.9 million 5G iPods, exceeding internal estimates and confirming that strong demand remains for higher capacity, higher priced iPod models, especially with additional functionality. By comparison, 8 million iPod nanos were sold during the same period.
After all, Apple has yet to announce the Intel-powered eMac and the pleather case for the shuffle.