OS X Based iPods Soon?

[MacRumors]

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster belives that Apple will be focusing on OS X based iPods by Macworld San Francisco 2008.

Munster's belief is likely based on an otherwise overlooked comment by Steve Jobs at Apple's Town Hall which revealed that Apple was working on OS X based iPods:

There is one OS group that does Mac OS X for the Mac and the iPhone, as well as "some iPods we're working on."

Apple uses a version OS X as the basis for the new iPhone, and many have expected a similar widescreen OS X based iPod to come from Apple since the introduction of the iPhone.


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[tonyl]

iPods with wifi, that's great.

[rxse7en]

Too many new items! iPhone, OSX iPod, what to buy, what to buy!?

[applekid]

Just give me an iPod without the phone features of the iPhone. That's all I want.

[Squonk]

OK, I'm ready to replace my 60GB iPod Photo with one of these! BRING IT!

Of course, I still want an iPhone too...

[guzhogi]

Would be cool to have it as an iPhone minus the phone part. Music & Wi-Fi stuff would be cool. Add in a hard drive instead of flash (or both maybe) for lots of movies and that would be cool. I have an iPhone & it's AWESOME! Only problem is the cost.

[Sandfleaz]

I was kinda hoping for new iPods before Christmas ...oh well, just wait a little longer.

Finally got to play with an iPhone this weekend .... WAY COOL!

[ts1973]

iPods with an updated interface à la iphone is a logical next step. It will make iPods even better imho.

[zap2]

That has to be the next stop with the iPod, not much else it can do IMO

[MattG]

Nooo!! Not 2008! Now!!!

[gugy]

I'm really looking into these 6g widescreen ipods.
I love the iPhone but the low storage and AT&T are deal breakers for me.

Give me an iPod 6g 5" widescreen, touch-screen Ui, 120 gig and wi-fi and I am in heaven. I just hope it happens by no later than MWSF.

[FF_productions]

I can see a pretty nice price point for these new iPods.

299 to 399 for the touch screen iPod running OS X

499 to 599 for a Phone running OS X

[Dimwhit]

I have no doubt that the next iPod will have many of the same features as the iPhone (not sure it will have wifi, though).

My big question is: will they keep them hard-drive based or will they go with NAND and have the smaller drives like the iPhone?

[lord patton]

First, Jobs' comment regarding OS X on iPods was not widely overlooked.

Second, why does he think they will not come out until '08? I guess it doesn't matter, since he can pull anything he wants out of his ass.

I think wi-fi on the iPod has been a safe bet ever since their partnering with Google. iPod and YouTube pretty much means the iPod will be the gold-standard portable media player for another couple years.

Ordinarily, I'd say the launch would be a lock for holdiay buying season '07. But with the iPhone not out yet in Europe and Asia, I'm not so sure.

[maverick808]

2008 seems a long way off for touchscreen based iPods. I can't imagine that their current iPod lines are currently selling well. The last Nano and Shuffle updates were Sept 2006, and the last full iPod updates were Oct 2005! They need updated NOW.

[The Red Wolf]

The last iPod I had was a Gen2. It lasted for 5 years before the HD failed which was simply amazing. I enjoyed the gray scale screen, it reminded me of the Mac SE I had. A Gen6 iPod with wide screen and iPhone like interface would be wonderful. It would remind me of my current computer. Perhaps a flash based/HD solution: Flash Storage for the OS-X part and HD for the storage of media. That would also make restoring the iPod great without influencing your media files. WiFi I think would be a must. Cross communication via WiFI to "Share" music libraries with others while in proximity would be grand. 299-399 would be a good price range as well.

[sjo]

it doesn't make much sense for apple to throw development resources to continue development of ipods. there will be memory upgrades and possible new itunes features will be made compatible with existing ipods, but other than that, most development resources will be used to develop new versions of iphones at lower price points that "replace" existing ipods gradually.

[Badradio]

Originally Posted by lord patton

Second, why does he think they will not come out until '08? I guess it doesn't matter, since he can pull anything he wants out of his ass.

If he guesses early, he's proved wrong when they're released. If he guesses late, an early arrival is down to Apple exceeding expectations.

With the iPhone interface now in the wild, the pressure to get the next generation of iPod out must be intense. 2008 seems too long to me.

[TonyBaloney]

I dont think Gen6 iPods will be like iPhone at all. They might end up changing it from the Gen5 interface but i think it would it would be a bad marketing move if it was anything like iPhone.

[Peace]

We already have an OS X based wide screen iPod.It's called the iPhone.Jobs even said "it's the best iPod we've ever made".But I know what folks are referring to.An iPod without the phone.If that's the case they could already have been built and we wouldn't even know it.
NAND Flash memory is going up in storage capacity and down in price.A hard drive is gonna eat up battery life using the great widescreen with coverflow.


As soon as this iPhone hype calms down to a bearable level we might even see it in say..August/September or alongside Leopard in October.

[gillilandboy]

I would like to see these before x-mas

[mklos]

Oh I can't wait for this. People expecting an iPhone minus the phone will be very disappointed! I can hear the bitching now!

This will be an iPod with touchcontrols if its even true. I'll bet the farm.

[p0intblank]

It's pretty safe to say the iPod will be different from now on. After using my dad's iPhone, I want a widescreen iPod so bad. All those theories of the digital click wheel are probably history, especially now that we've been introduced to the "flicking" method, which in my opinion works really well. I was hoping for a release before Christmas, though. Apple will have something iPod related for the holiday sales. They always do...

[acrafton]

The analyst says they will be released BEFORE or during MWSF. . .they will be out by Christmas. . .

"We believe the iPhone reveals much of what the iPod will soon be. Specifically, we expect Apple to release high capacity iPods based on OS X sometime during or before MacWorld '08 in January," he said.

[JonasLondon]

Originally Posted by lord patton

First, Jobs' comment regarding OS X on iPods was not widely overlooked.

Second, why does he think they will not come out until '08? I guess it doesn't matter, since he can pull anything he wants out of his ass.

I think wi-fi on the iPod has been a safe bet ever since their partnering with Google. iPod and YouTube pretty much means the iPod will be the gold-standard portable media player for another couple years.

Ordinarily, I'd say the launch would be a lock for holdiay buying season '07. But with the iPhone not out yet in Europe and Asia, I'm not so sure.

Exactly, fully agree. Re the "overlooked" thing - it was probably overlooked by some dumb analysts (like those who publish a target price of 120 USD with a BUY recommendation when the share is already trading at 129, oh well...) because it is so obvious, isn't it? Perhaps they were OS X all the time, did anyone check this? Surely they were not runing Symbian or Palm OS ;-)

Anyway, bring them on. And VIDEO DOWNLOADS IN THE UK PLEASE - feed my Apple TV. I'm tired of ripping DVDs. :-)