Sounds like a toss idea. They should concentrate on the output stage :rolleyes:
One of the reasons why i built a portable headphone amp (feeding from the line outs on the dock connector) as ipods tend to distort easily.

Design is value added tax.

Design is over rated tbh.

Don't underestimate the value of design :)

(Please don't, because I'll be out of work if people do :()

Im not sure, their computers do exactly what others do yet they are gaining market share year on year even though they charge way over the odds. And to the same degree, even their iPods arent as good as some others out there, and they are more expensive, yet they are by far the market leaders.

If they keep up the top design, if they keep up the ease of use which is what the majority of their ipods and iphone is based on then they should keep (and gain) a large proportion should the two markets merge.

I'm not sure how it'll pan out.

All joking aside, putting out a phone that does at best exactly the same as other phones and charging a fortune from it only gets you so far, so there will come an end to that market.

People with other phones will still buy an ipod though, they would lose a massive share of the market.

the little apple adds a stupid amount to the price, but I suppose its well earnt from great marketing and product design.

Id imagine we'll see a few more ipods before we get an iphone nano and they'll phase out certain ipods then, only keeping the likes of the tiny shuffle.

They're probably loving the standardisation of parts now by sharing components across the range and bumping up the costs of the product with a fancy case and a nice advert :)

Of course, eventually they'll meet in the middle somewhere and you'll just have the one thing in your pocket. Apple know this, and probably look forward to the day as they have the most popular MP3 player and the most popular phone - so it'll have the vast majority of the market.

They'll still try to slow the development of ipods though for a few generations by just adding a few new features at a time.

The next thing you need after a camera is an iPod that will connect to a 3G network for internet and services like last.fm and Spotify. Oh wait...

But seriously, with the way that phones are going I think that MP3 players are a dying breed. Saying that, there are probably a few years left in them until the smart phones are small enough to suit a lot of people...

Just send out a press release saying its the first portable music player ever, should do the job.

Probably the next natural progression for them, what else can you do to make a good enough change to create demand for the next new model?!

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/7/6/apple-include-3-megapixel-cameras-its-new-ipod-range/

Smart move? What do you think...