Apple is to release a new touchscreen Apple iPod next month, new rumours suggest.
A source within Taiwanese supply firm Wintek said the company has started to supply touchscreen panels for the updated device.
Wintek, which makes small LCD screens for cameras and other handhelds, has apparently been chosen to supply Apple with touchscreen panels. It will reportedly ship capacitive touchscreens without specific software controls or integrated circuits to accompany them, allowing Apple to integrate the panels with an Apple iPod music player whose controls would resemble that of the Apple iPhone, Electronista reports.
Shipments may have started already
Shipments have been scheduled for the second half of this year but are likely to have begun already. Apparently Apple has asked for the panels in time for an August release, which would be less than two months after the launch of the Apple iPhone .
This may of course be just another rumour but naming a supplier at least gives the rumour some credibility. If Apple does bring out the Apple iPhone-lookalike touchscreen Apple iPod next month, it will be a lot earlier than analysts have previously predicted. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said yesterday that he believed Apple would launch the next generation Apple iPods by January 2008 at the latest.
Last month, ahead of the Apple iPhone launch, Steve Jobs confirmed that Apple developers were hard at work developing the next-generation Apple iPods. The devices will run Mac OS X just like the Apple iPhone.
writer Anna Lagerkvist
