Apple is on the verge of releasing its next-generation high-end iPod, according to reliable sources....
....it will hit the markets just before iPhone does, and will take its place in the iDevice family just "below" the flagship iPhone.
Many iPhone features won't cross over to this version, but fundamentally the two devices will be much more closely related (both will run a stripped down version of OS X, employ wi-fi and sport touch-controlled widescreens) than any of the other iPods.
The new "6G" iPod will include three major versions: a Hard Disk based model, a Flash Memory model, and a "Hybrid" model which stores its operating system and "cache" data on a Flash volume while storing files on a hard drive.
We are still working to confirm all the details but it is believed that the three models will include the following storage sizes: 30, 80, 100GB (Hard Drive model) - 8GB, 16GB (Flash model) - 4/80GB, 4/100GB (Hybrid model).
In time, Apple expects to end up with a single model lineup of entirely Hybrid models but uncertainties in the price-time curves of both Flash and 1.8-inch Hard Drives have led Cupertino to develop all three versions for cost and consumer choice reasons.
The final shipping model lineup may very well be much simpler....but for the time being, all three models with two versions of each are still under very active development.
This is also part of the reason for the delays in Leopard; stripping it down to meet the needs of iPhone as well as the high-end iPod is a very complex and time-intensive task. Additionally, supporting OS X on the 6G iPod platform (which will have some similarities but also many differences, likely to include the processor[s] used in the iPod which may not be identical to the Xscale chip used in iPhone) is almost certainly more difficult than on iPhone due to the reduced size of system memory -- which helps keep iPod's cost lower than iPhone's.
We've been reporting on the 6G iPod for over a year now....and the excitement is building over its upcoming release. Stay tuned for much more reporting & rumor-mongering about this remarkable iDevice in the days ahead!
