Apple Set to Launch First Full Video iPod

By Tony Glover

APPLE is to launch a radical video iPod in early March or late April.

It will be the first fully fledged video iPod, according to California-based Apple-watching website Think Secret. One side of the device will be a screen measuring 3.5-inches diagonally and it will lose the traditional iPods mechanical click wheel.

Instead, the device will feature a sensitive display that appears when a finger touches it and disappears when the finger is removed.

At Apples last big show, the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs hinted at a big announcement at the beginning of April.

Think Secrets sources did not reveal the price of the new iPod nor what kind of storage capacity it would have. But this is likely to be greater than that offered by music players because video needs far greater capacity than audio.

While consumers are used to listening to music on the move, there are still reservations about whether they will want to watch videos in the same way.

Sources within Apple and its arch rival Microsoft say devices capable of storing video such as the high-end iPods and the Microsoft-powered Creative Zen player are not merely mobile players.

A growing number of iPod and Creative Zen owners use their portable players to store favourite movies, TV shows and home videos which they can play elsewhere.

It is expected that the new device will connect easily to digital television sets as well as to Apple computers. Although neither Apple nor Microsoft would comment, it is also understood the new video iPods will connect to Microsoft-powered PCs.

According to a senior source at Apple, the company is anxious to stay ahead of Microsoft in the mobile entertainment stakes, with Microsoft expected to launch an own-branded device to rival iPod.