Apple may replace the 1.8 inch hard disk it uses in its Video iPod with NAND flash memory before the end of the year, according to an analyst atthe  Prudential Equity Group.

Video iPod may soon be as slim as its little brother and sister 

Writing in the “IT Hardware” report, analyst Jesse Tortora, said moving to flash memory would allow Apple to develop a wider, smaller range of players, and would also lead to better battery life.

Tortora wrote that he believed that “Apple is considering canceling its next generation HDD-based iPod design, with the form factor refresh involving a move to NAND flash memory”. Bigger screens, Wi-Fi and GPS, are also on the cards, according to Tortora.

While Tortora conceded that Flash memory is obviously more expensive on a dollar per gigabyte basis, he said that the late 2005 Nano transition to flash provides an insight to the point at which Apple considers that the “non-cost advantages of flash memory outweigh the cost premium”.

According to Tortora, it would be feasible, from a cost perspective, to fit a Video iPod with up 32 GB of flash memory. He said the big issue was whether 32 GB is enough storage to store video.

Apple currently sells 30 and 80 GB Video iPods. The 30 GB model stores up to 40 hours of video and offers 3.5 hours of video playback, while the 80 GB model holds 100 hours video and 6.5 hours of video playback.

“While the higher capacities would allow for more video storage, we view battery life as the key consideration for a move to flash,” wrote Totora. Moving to flash technology would allow Apple to offer a 32 GB Video iPod that offers 5.5 hours of video playback.

Totora also predicts that Apple will give the Video iPod a larger screen (similar to the iPhone), and will introduce Wi-Fi (like Microsoft’s Zune media player) to facilitate the transfer of content from the Apple TV. He also believes that the next Video iPod will feature GPS.

While these predictions aren’t that surprising (the falling cost, and increasing capacity of flash is not hot news), they do show that there is still a lot of innovation possible (in the short term) to improve the functionality and form factor of the Video iPod.

Related:

Entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 4:36 pm under Media players.

Read more entries by John Pospisil.
Stumble It!