Laugh all you want, McFly. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I'm not saying that Apple won't come up with an iPod that's a lot like the phone -- It'll be the new top-of-the-line "iPod HD" or "iPod Touch" or "iPodPro" -- I'm just saying that they're not going to jettison what people have come to know as an iPod. I believe they'll will give the current iPod a makeover and OS X too so it's not just a storage increase upgrade. The lineup will be Shuffle, Nano, WHITE IPOD and the iPod Touch. My argument is that Apple's got 6 years invested in teaching people that iPods are White Decks-of-Card sized MP3 players with a click wheel and they're not going to walk away from that.
You also have to consider all this from Apple's perspective. They've painted themselves into a corner with the VERY NICE, HIGH CAPACITY player that's $300. The 1Gen iPod was $399 and finally got as high as $599. They want that slice again, but they can't get to it because people are now used to $300 ipods that are very cool. So in order to get back to an expensive player, they'll have to offer a new model that does much more.
Enter ipodTOUCH or whatever else you want to call it now. Which, you have to admit, would be mostly VIDEO, less music.
They're not just going to abandon the $300 sweet spot which is a $300 model that is mostly MUSIC, less video.
You and I are talking about 2 separate markets. You're talking about kids who are swayed by every marketing gimmick that exists and I'm talking about adults. There are people (such as my 40 year old friend) who didn't care for (nor fall for) Apple's new hype 2 years ago ("It does video!!/It's finally in BLACK!!"). He's a family man who had been taking care of his family's needs/wants and had never bought an iPod for himself. He finally was in a position to treat himself and he thoughts were the iPod was defined by its color. Call him old-fashion or out-of-touch. But there are millions like him who just want what they've come to know and love... an Apple music player that's white.
You know... they're called iPods.