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Apr 12, 2001
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British chip-maker Wolfson Microelectronics is reported to have not been chosen to supply parts to Apple's future iPods. As a result of the rumor, Wolfson's stock has plunged by 30% to a 3-1/2 year low.
"IPods have been a big contributor historically to revenues, so it's pretty disappointing for them," said Nick James, an analyst at Panmure Gordon
The decision appears to reflect future supplies for the iPod Touch and iPod Nano, specifically. New versions of those iPods are said to be due in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

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what, like the last 3 years? great prediction. ipod revisions in september ready for the holiday season.

It's not a prediction, it's confirmation of what we all expected anyway.

If you want a prediction, i'd say the reason Wolfson is being dropped is in an effort to reduce the price of Nano's & Touch's. We'll see a more integrated SoC solution rather than a standalone MP3/AAC codec.

M.
 
Sign of something very new

This is very interesting news. This is a clue that new hardware is coming soon. You don't drop chip vendors in proven products unless you have a very very good reason.
 
what, like the last 3 years? great prediction. ipod revisions in september ready for the holiday season.

Best comment today :p

[RANT]

I like the way people state the obvious (not you speakerwizard). Intel anounce a new chip and the rumor mill goes wild that new Macs with the new chips are on the way. Yeah, duh! Samsung/Toshiba/Other announce a larger HD in the same form factor as the current one, and again 'coming to a Mac/iPod/iPhone near you'. Another duh! We seem to be mising the rumors (well accurate ones anyway) about form factors or new products. Can we go beyond the obvious anymore!

[/RANT]
 
I don't think there's much room for improvement on either of these other than storage capacity.

i dunno... i reckon they could be a bit thinner :rolleyes:

I was thinking about that the other day. Unless they make the Nano touchable, they really can't change it around too much. It's already almost too small for human use.

The iPod Touch can't change design too much either; there's not a lot you can do with a big empty touchpad. The hardware will change to allow for a more advanced OS, but that's about it.
 
I don't think there's much room for improvement on either of these other than storage capacity.

That's where Jobs and Apple are brilliant, because these guys are the only ones in the world who know how to upgrade a great product. Every one on the earth see the change of the iPods, I mean Sony, Samsung Creative, iAudio, iRiver, but no one can set a product which the killer app is the same as the iPod. That's revolution right before your eyes but no one can predict them
 
Unless they make the Nano touchable, they really can't change it around too much. It's already almost too small for human use.

I never thought about it, but that makes a lot of sense.

At this point the dimensions of the nano are as small as they can go while still being usable. I can possibly see one more size revision that makes, which is making it thin enough to store it in a credit card slot. But even if that size were possible with upcoming technology, certainly that would be the last form factor size reduction that would still be usable.

...Then again, Apple has surprised us all many times before. And now that I think about it again, I can envision the form factor getting smaller and still being useable. Imagine if the nano had a flexible roll-out screen. They could make it so the screen pops out at the press of a button and then pops in when you press it again. That could get the nano to smaller than the original gum-pack sized iPod Shuffle and yet still be totally useable.

But barring any radical advances like that, for at least the next few years the only changes that can occur are cosmetics and features.
 
Hmm the touch wouldn't get new tech before the iphone.. right?

So that would make a June date for a new iPhone followed by bringing the touch up to the same sort of spec later in the year seem sensible..? just a thought
 
what will this update do for the two ipods??
i hope not too much cause i have a ipod touch now and i dont want it to become obsolete:(
 
Does that mean a new form factor, or just bigger gigs?

Form factor and processor power probably won't change for years to come, we don't want software that only works on the new models. Maybe we get a new category (bigger screen) but this model will stay the same for a some time getting cheaper every year and sell billions.
 
It might come out a little earlier because so far every update has been mainly about iphone
So when they come out with iphone 2.0 (hopefully 3g and a world wide launch(asia)) they might also update these things too!!:D
 
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