Tech upgrades to delay new iPods

Stan Beer
Thursday, 29 June 2006 05:51

Your IT - Home IT

A larger screen, longer battery life, increased memory and possibly Bluetooth earphones are new technology improvements that are being touted as features  of the new iPod range that was due to be released later this year. The bad news is that for iPod fans is that implementing the improvements will probably force Apple to delay the release of the new range for a quarter and possibly longer.

At least that's the view of one Wall Street analyst that everybody seems to be listening to on the subject. According to a Reuters report, US technology analyst Shaw Wu said that the new iPod Nano range would ship in the December quarter, rather than the September quarter. The report indicates that this is because it has dropped its chip supplier PortalPlayer and taken on Samsung. However, other reports suggest that there are other technology issues that could be responsible for shipping delays.

A widescreen video iPod that was to be released this year may be delayed until the second quarter of 2007 because of battery life issues. The new iPod model may also include Bluetooth headphones. For many, the inclusion of wireless Bluetooth earpieces for iPod is a no brainer that should be standard on all players from a company that prides itself as being on the leading edge of technology.

Now for the good news. Wu, who seems to be in the know, given that his comments have moved Apple's share price downwards, says that the iPod nano model prices will stay the same, even though their memory capacities will double to 4 GB and 8 GB. It seems to be a recurring theme in Apple's strategy not to raise the prices of its products and services under any circumstances. Not many can argue with that - certainly not consumers.