Mac Soda

It looks rainbow to me...

As you all know, today is Apple’s long-awaited iPod Event, in which Apple is slated to introduce newly updated iPods, and iTunes 8. Apple, normally very quit about the quality of their events (they let the keynote speak for itself), has been urging invited reporters to come, saying “It’s a big deal”. Obviously iPod refreshes aren’t that big of a deal… Apple does them every year, and its pretty straightforward in that nothing iPhone-like in excitement ever gets released. So why would Apple say its going to be a big deal? Its not like they need the hype… it will get hyped no matter what. Apple would be stupid to overhype it, as the stock would crash greatly if they did. Therefore something big must be coming.

Here’s my theory: Apple has something really big planned for this event, but is keeping it a huge secret, much like the details of the iPhone were kept secret. We all knew the iPhone was coming, but were expecting something like a flip phone, or at best, a device with two batteries and a slide-out keyboard (reported by Kevin Rose). What we got was out of this world. There are three scenarios that might be going on right now.

The first potential scenario is that Apple deliberately leaked all the details about the nano (photo, cases, plans, etc.) to draw the attention away from the bigger deal at the event: what the big deal is, I don’t know. It could be a tablet of some sort, it could be the laptops we’ve all been waiting for. Whatever it is, it will steal the show.

The next scenario is that Apple could have created this nano as a fake, just like they released false prototypes of the iPhone. These pictures could end up being false prototypes, and we could end up seeing the entire iPod line gain touch functionality, ditching the click wheel once and for all.

The third possible scenario is that the nano pic is real: the click wheel will stay… but an iPod Touch Nano will be added to the line.

While I may simply sound like an Apple conspiracy theorist, I believe there to be a good chance these scenarios could materialize. After all when Apple says something is a big deal: its a big deal.

NOTE: Just like in sports, when you TiVo a game, and don’t want to know the score, I don’t want to know what happens in the keynote until I watch it. Thanks to Mac Rumors, this is possible. I watch every Apple keynote spoiler free: its the best way to view the event. I highly recommend watching it this way if you have the time to. Bookmark this link if you want to watch it spoiler free. Since I will be watching it spoiler free, my reactions to the event will not be posted until I finish it: likely sometime very late tonight. Check back then for my full analyzation of the event.