Financial analyst company American Technology Research (ATR) says Apple is right for the picking if your shopping for stocks. Historically, the company's value skyrockets after its annual MacWorld Expo held at the start of the year. But ATR thinks the ship will launch even before.

According to ATR, Apple's stocks will continue to float thanks to the Mac and iPod record-setting sales during the September Quarter which is predicted to continue into the holiday shopping season. Included in Apples catalog of winners for the next quarter are the MacBook notebooks and the new MacBook Pro running on Intel's Core 2 Duo processors.

Fifth-generation iPod video sales aren't slacking off, either. Apple's aggressive pricing, improved battery life, higher video resolution, movie content and video games are some of the factors that continue to fuel the iCraze. "We believe improved video battery life, higher video resolution, movie content, and video games are helping drive sales," ATR said. "Nanos continue to rebound helped by lower price points, 24-hour battery life, multiple colors, and scratch-resistant casing."

Then there's the new entry-level iPod shuffle. The $79 iBargain could be the top selling iPod this quarter says ATR. All in all ATR forecasts Apple's last quarter fortune to be around US$6.1 billion in revenues from the estimated sales of14 million iPods and 1.8 million Macs.

What happens after year 2006? ATR says Apple will continue to be a crunchy investment with the launch of its Mac OS X Leopard, iTV, movie content partners beyond Disney, new iPod features including widescreen and wireless Bluetooth capability, and cell phones.

There's been much talk about Apple's big media event on September 12. And yes, there have been rumors, lots of rumors, about what they're going to reveal next week. What will it be, really? A new product in the whole iThis, iThat, iFranchise? American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu has an idea.

Their research has shown that an Apple smartphone has moved from concept stage, to prototype, to testing, and to what could now be nearing completion as a production unit. An Apple smartphone? Yes, it seems as if its already been under development for twelve months now, with Apple trying to produce the right blend of cell phone and media player. And Wu has provided us with a rather detailed account of what we could expect:

"The design will be an iPod nano-like candy bar form factor and come in three colors (we are not certain of the exact colors but we suspect black, white, and platinum, similar to Apple's current color scheme of iPods and iMacs)."

Errr... "Candy bar form?" Well, it definitely sounds intriguing, and all we can do is sit and wait patiently for Steve Jobs to finally spill the beans by next week. Still, an iPod-phone will definitely revolutionize the mobile-media-device arena, and we're definitely keeping our fingers crossed for this.

Industry analysts at American Technology Research think Apple's next-gen iPod could be be capable of playing 3D video games after they believe NVIDIA signed a deal with the company. "Based on our analysis, we believe Nvidia is designed into the next-generation vPod socket at the expense of Broadcom," said Satya Chillara. "We believe the Nvidia chip adds 3D graphics functionality in addition to all of the existing features (such as H.264) that Broadcom supported with the existing iPod."

While the video gaming iPod is still very much a mystery with very little solid information about the device, this could explain why Apple has reportedly been looking to hire game developers. However, analysts also believe the videogaming iPod won't be released until the next major iPod update. Meaning don't hold your breath.

Recently we posted an article about the possible major delay in the release of Apple's next-gen iPod nano, based on the report made by American Technology Research. Now, another Wall Street analyst seconded that opinion saying the redesigned iPod nano digital music player may indeed face a setback of up to two months from its original September launch.

Tristan Gerra, a Baird analyst, said spot pricing for 8GB NAND flash fell 31 percent since last week due to delays in the launch of Apple's next-generation iPod nano player. The delay is attributed to Apple's decision to switch SoC (system-on-a-chip) suppliers from PortalPlayer to Samsung.

The highly anticipated debut of the next-gen iPod expected late this year could be a no-show. Instead, the new apple of Apple investors' eyes may surface in the first quarter of 2007.

According to Shaw Wu of American Technology Research, the delay was caused by Apple's switching of chip supplier from PortalPlayer to another chipmaker. Apple engineers also need more time to kick up the power of the video iPod's battery life and increase its screen size. The next-gen iPod nano is expected to have twice as much capacity as the pre-gen (4GB and 8GB).

Despite the production glitches, Wu expects Apple to introduce yet another new high-end iPod model. So far Apple has no comment on the issue.