Flickr user Marc Krenn has posted this amazing mock-up of what we might possibly expect the new, updated iPod Shuffle / Nano with the 1.13-inch touchscreen to look like when Steve Jobs finally unveils it this afternoon. I think he’s probably nailed it except for the colors: Apple’s chromatic preferences of any given season are always unpredictable.
While I’m thinking about it — and this is as good a place as any to muse — there’s been a lot of debate as to whether this new touchscreen iPod is going to be an update to the Nano or the Shuffle. We’ll know in about five hours, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if Apple doesn’t intend to converge both models into a single device.
After all, both the Nano and the Shuffle are aimed to the same kinds of consumers: the budget conscious, the footprint conscious and the athletically minded. If Apple can add a touchscreen display to the Shuffle, what’s the point of the Nano, and if the Nano gets as small as the last-generation Shuffle… well, what’s the point of the Shuffle at all?
There’s some holes in this theory, I know: the Nano has a widescreen display for watching movies, which this new Nano/Shuffle/whatever would be hopeless for. It also comes with a camera, which is obviously going to be left out of this new design. But if Apple intends on trying to push iPod customers who want a camera and video capabilities up the ladder to the entry-level iPod Touch, and if they can bring a Shuffle/Nano hybrid down to below, say, $100… I wonder if what we’re seeing here is Cupertino’s attempt to simplify the iPod line-up by merging two distinct devices into one.
Thoughts? Hit us up in the comments.
[via 9to5Mac]
