New Apple iPods? September 9th

03/09/08

Apple plans to host a special event next week, feeding speculation that it may release updated models of the iPod media player to spur holiday sales.
An invitation for the Sept. 9 event in San Francisco, sent Tuesday, is entitled "Let's Rock" and shows a silhouetted dancer holding an iPod below a "playing soon" banner.
Apple shares fell 2 percent after a Thomas Weisel Partners analyst trimmed his sales and profit estimates for this quarter.
Lower prices, smaller models and more storage may bolster Apple's product line in the December quarter, its biggest sales period. Chief Executive Steve Jobs has held events each September for the past four years to introduce new iPods, which play music and videos. A year ago, Jobs introduced the iPod Touch, a touch-screen model that surfs the Web.
The iPod accounted for 22 percent of revenue last quarter, with Apple's Macintosh computers and the iPhone making up most of the rest.