Word has been circulating around the Internet that Apple is finally preparing to launch a next gen video iPod that will feature a touch-screen panel similar to the one used in the iPhone within a year.

Longstanding rumors about a touch-screen iPod have been bolstered by a recent U.S. patent awarded to the Cupertino based company.

According to Apple Insider, DigiTimes has also added more fuel to the fire, citing "sources at upstream suppliers" that Taiwan-based Wintek will be supplying the touch panels. DigiTimes says that Wintek will "begin shipping capacitive touch screen panels in the second half of 2007".

Apple Insider also noted that during a private meeting last month at the Apple Town Hall, Apple CEO Steve Jobs mentioned that a division of the company was working hard on next gen iPods that would run an embedded version of Mac OS X.

This particular tidbit was picked up by Wall Street analysts, among them Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster. Munster wrote in a report to clients earlier this week that they "expect Apple to release high capacity iPods based on OS X sometime during or before Macworld '08 in January".

Yesterday's news about Best Buy starting to sell Macs again may just be the first in a number of Apple-related changes coming to the Best Buy stores scattered around the U.S.

MacNN reports that the deal, which will see Best Buy increasing the number of their retail locations stocking Macs to about 200 by this fall, may also mean new Apple-centric boutique layouts at Best Buy stores.

Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray believes that while the increase in Mac stocks at Best Buy retail stores will not affect Piper Jaffray's current outlook for Mac sales, the strengthening relationship between Apple and Best Buy will bring "higher visibility, including boutique-like Apple stores in some locations."

"We believe Apple's store within a store at Best Buy will be much different compared to the current pilot store rollout, which was a table with Apple products on it," said Munster in his research report. "The difference is we expect some (smaller number) of these 200 stores will have walled-off Apple stores, while others will have improved layouts."

"What is clear, you won't wander around Best Buy to shop for Apple," he continued. "A good way to think about Apple & Best Buy is the Coach or Chanel store within a store concept at Nordstrom."

Apple, the leader of providing consumer-designed technology to the industry, might want to rethink their future should co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs decide to step down. The news about Steve Jobs could have been responsible for the recent faked backdated options, which forced a 5.8% percent drop in Apple's stock. Apple director and former U. S. Vice President Al Gore stepped up to clear Steve Jobs of the allegations and brought back a miraculous 4.9% rise in stock.

His creativity, his closeness to the prospects and directions of the company and stockholder confidence in his leadership strengthens Apple's progress. Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company Inc. in New York, believes that Apple's value might fall as much as a third of its current value if Jobs were to just suddenly leave.

The creativity Jobs possesses is unquestionable, as he has turned himself into a fashionista icon of technology over the past five years with the iPod and further solidifying his position with a new Apple mobile phone (no, not an "iPhone", sorry) that plays movies and music. He is also able to transform a conservative product introductions into high-profile media events, with celebrities such as U2's Bono and Kanye West.

Piper Jaffray's Munster said, "The biggest risk to Apple is not competition or markets or products. It's probably the reality that at some point Steve Jobs is going to leave. That's just the wild card that investors have to deal with."

Apple will then have to make a selection among the jeans-wearing executives who also imitate Job's words "cool," "awesome" and "revolutionary." But in our opinion, because the void that would be left behind would be quite vast to fill, the only way Apple could survive is if the one filling it equals or exceeds Jobs' qualities.

Now where can you find someone like that?

Whoever came up with the idea for iPod and the Mac-Window hybrid ought to get a Christmas bonus the size of Rhode Island! Gene Munster, an analyst at Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray says Apple's Mac sales could reach 9 million in 2007. Okay, that's still a distant third to PC pushers HP and Dell. But ain't no chump change, either.

Munster credits the iPod for converting more consumers into Apple People "halo effect". If this halo effect keeps going on, the iPod may soon be canonized by the Vatican. The other thing going for Apple is its new line of Intel-powered Macs. Munster says Apple's Boot Camp software - the killer app that run Microsoft's Windows on the Mac - isn't hurting sales of its notebooks and desktops.

If the 9 million units (which is admittedly only guesswork based on market trends) fails to impress you, let us show you some very cold, very hard facts. Apple's fourth-quarter sales for its Mac line is already at 1.61 million. That's 1.61 million Macs sold within three months. If you're the stocks-betting type, we say put your money where Munster's mouth is - it's almost as sure as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The iPod killer, the future-proof MP3 player, the cool-looking portable Hard Drive. The Zune's been called a lot of things (we'll omit what the iPod dudes have to say for now), and while we do like the functions that it's been churning out, and Bill Gate's exceeding expectations for his (other) little black box, we were beginning to wonder just how people took to it as compared to the iPod.

"I have never heard of the Zune," came the reply of one sales clerk when asked about the Zune, at least according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Munster had conducted a survey on at 40 major retails stores, and found in his results that only 8% of the sales clerks ever recommended the Zune, with 75% recommending the iPod for customers.

"In fact, some MP3 player salespeople had not even heard of the Zune, despite the fact that they sold it in their store," Munster also writes in his report. Ouch. As of Tuesday, the Zune's on the #22 spot for Amazon's most sold MP3 player, the 30-gigabyte ipod taking the #1 spot, the 1-gig iPod shuffle at #3, and the pink 4-gig Nano at #5.

And what of marketing for the Zune? "our checks show that Zune ads are being placed more selectively than iPod ads," Munster said, adding that the Zune "is off to a slow start; from sales perspective as well as the marketing perspective." Given the season's just starting up, we're going to have to see what lies in store for the Zune.

It's the Boot Camp Effect - people preferring a Mac over a PC due to the presence of the Boot Camp software. And it seems like the Boot Camp Effect will be Apple's key to equating or superseding Microsoft's success. This is according to a Piper Jaffray research.

The said report reflected that of 42 near-term PC shoppers, 8.3% are considering to get a Mac computer over a PC because of the Boot Camp software. Analyst Gene Muster wrote that this interest in the Boot Camp-capable Macs will see Apple gaining market share over the next 12 months, which can also see Apple completing its transition to Windows-capable Mac computers fitted with Intel microprocessors.

The release of the new Windows-functional Mac OS, 10.5 Leopard, may lead to a 2007 gain in momentum for the Boot Camp Effect.

You know, if Nostradamus were alive today, he would probably be a financial analyst. The closest we have, though, is Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray. A mild-mannered one, Gene is expecting Apple to sell 8 million iPods by the end of this quarter, citing a good sales report from the company in recent weeks.

According to MacObserver: "Mr. Munster noted that Apple's iPod market share in May was 76%, which was flat with April. However, he said: "The iPod number will likely be a nonevent for the June quarter. More importantly, we believe the Mac number has room for upside. We expect new versions of iPod and positive seasonality will be a catalyst for this segment of the business in the back half of 2006."

Okay, let's get down to the nitty-gritty: Macs are not as outrageously expensive as other PC gear out there, it just seems that way. That's according to those zany analysts at Piper Jaffray, who said that the price of Macs nowadays are comparable to the price of PC-based laptops and desktops.

Gene Munster, who's made a name for himself recently by studying Apple and making some accurate forecasts, says that it's all in the consumers' perception that Apple's are more expensive computers. He said: "We believe both consumers and investors tend to believe that purchasing a Mac will cost 20 percent to 30 percent more than a PC," he said in a research note.

In case you want to look at the actual break-down and the cost comparisons, be sure to check out Cnet, which seems to counter the opinion on several levels. You can make the final determination for yourself. Of course, there isn't a PC out there that looks as sexy as some of Apple's latest products.

Xbox 360-what? Nintendo DS-what? No, the two top-selling holiday items this past year apparently were LCD displays and Apple's iPod. Is there any surprise there?

According to MacNN, Apple's new iPod products were on the lips of consumers everywhere, with large retail chains like CompUSA reporting good sales figures on the svelte music players. LCD displays, with their space-age looks and small footprint also drove in the dough.

"For us, anything that said iPod or was an iPod accessory was hot," said Larry Mondry, CEO of CompUSA. The latest statements from retail executives confirm analyst predictions of iPod sales; Piper Jaffray performed checks with several Mac resellers in late December of 2005 to find that iPod- and Mac-related sales were stronger than the previous year."

Just goes to show that innovation will always pay off in the end.

[Via, MacNN]

According to Forbes, who is not immune to discussing the limitless possibility of announcements that Apple may make in the near-future, Apple may be introducing a revamped iPod Shuffle. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks good ol' Steve Jobs may make the announcement during his annual Macworld keynote address next Tuesday.

According to Munster, iPod may be preparing to unveil a new form factor for the Shuffle, possibly with a built-in screen to complement the new revision. Munster considers the evidence pointing to the new Shuffle:

"Evidence of this is the fact that Apple.com indicates that 1gigabyte iPod shuffles are sold out and supply will not be replenished until mid-January. 'We believe this is a sign that a new shuffle is coming at Macworld; otherwise Apple would likely have refilled the channel,' the analyst noted in research note today."

Guess the rest of us will have to wait until next week to see what it is Jobs has up his sleeve. With Microsoft announcing it wants to destroy iTunes, it may be an interesting speech indeed.

[Via, Forbes]