One of the many factors that come into play when one decides what handheld device we'd buy is the abundance of add-ons available for the product. You'll probably buy a product if you think the peripherals that come with it, or that you can get for it, are nifty. Just look at those two docks at the left. See? Nifty.

Steve Jobs seems to want to continue feeding this peripheral-product balance, as Apple recently made a deal with Creative regarding their peripherals. So it's probably safe to assume that peripheral manufacturers will have a heavy sway on the features that the 6th Generation of iPod will incorporate.  After all, iPod already has a huge peripheral market.

The rumor mills are always churning when it comes to future features, and the nice folks at mp3newswire have made a list of the most likely features that we'll be getting if you consider the peripherals available today.

Here are some of the most likely things they've listed:

• 6GB iPod nano. Odds = Sure Thing
• Brushed metal case. Odds = even money
• 8GB iPod nano. Odds = 9:5
• iPod Phone or iPhone. Odds = 2:1
• Widescreen Display. Odds = 2:1
• Touchscreen Display. Odds = 2:1
• Built-in Bluetooth or WiFi. Odds = 3:1
• iPod with OLED Display. Odds = 5:1
• iPod with 100GB+ drive. Odds = 8:1
• Talking iPod. Odds = 15:1
• Replaceable Batteries. Odds = 18:1
• iPod with HD Radio. Odds = 20:1

All you rumor sleuths have to do now is compare this list with the patent that was published, and you should get a narrower list of likely features.