Apple today released its third-quarter earnings report, and it turns out the iPod is no longer quite the hot ticket item it used to be.
In Q3 2012, Apple reports, 6.8 million iPods were sold, down 10 per cent from the same period last year.
Plummeting iPod sales seem to lend more credence to recent rumors that Apple's planning an iPod redesign the likes of which haven't been seen since the iPod Touch was introduced in 2007.
The newly redesigned iPod could drop as early as September, if the rumors prove accurate.
How does the iPod factor in Apple's future?
The new iPod touch redesign could sport a screen as large as 4 inches, according to the rumors.
An even larger screen possibly putting it in the realm of smaller tablet/phone hybrids like the 5.3-inch screened Samsung Galaxy Note isn't out of the question either, though that's pure speculation.
The rumors also claim that the new iPod Touch redesign will be housed in aluminum like the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, making it somewhat unique as far as current Apple handsets go (unless the long-awaited iPhone 5 winds up in a similar casing).
The iPod touch hasn't changed much since it was introduced in 2007. It even still sports the beveled edges of the first three generations of iPhones.
Other iPod models, like the iPod Nano, haven't changed significantly either.
That design stagnation may be part of the reason iPod sales are lagging, though ever-rising iPad and iPhone sales likely haven't helped either.
In Q3 Apple sold 26 million iPhones (up 28 per cent since last year) and 17 million iPads (an 84 per cent increase from last year's third quarter), as well as 4 million Macs (an increase of two per cent), the company reported today.
With the iPhone offering everything the iPod does and the iPad being a more attractive non-phone Apple device than the current iPod Touch, the iPod's role going forward is up in the air, whether or not a redesign even occurs.
