iPods Secondary...
Again...I think many of you have missed some important clues.
With the impending announcement of the new Apple Music Service, an announcement of new iPods is secondary to that. In other words, Apple will wait to announce new iPods until they are ready to announce/launch the new music service.
It is very likely that the iPods are ready to go at any time, but Apple will seek to gain maximum exposure for their announcement of the new music service, and that will mean that they likely will announce new iPods on that same day. New iPods will not be announced quietly by a mere update on the Apple site...
This entire announcement will be visible...meaning Apple will create a media event of some sort, or wait to announce this at an appropriate event at which Apple is already scheduled.
My guess is that this new music service could entail some significant delays...it sounds as though they are still negotiating terms.
But then again, there was the recent announcement that Quicktime will be updated in the next few weeks (I also believe an updated quicktime will be part of this new music service). So, put together the time-frame for the new music service, new quicktime, and new iPods, and I think we are looking at a few weeks still...
My guess? Mid May to early June.