World awaits Apple's 'one more thing'

The Apple oracle is expected to speak again on Wednesday morning in California

Speculation is mounting over the product or products that Apple is planning to launch at its one more thing event on Wednesday.

While Apple has kept mum on details, the firm has invited selected media and industry watchers to an event in San José, California at 10am on 12 October.

The email invitation carried the subject line 'One more thing' and provided logistical details only for the event.

This tag line is a reference to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs's habit of spending the bulk of his time in keynote addresses pounding the company's chest and unveiling mundane partnerships or product refreshes.

As his presentation progresses and the tension builds, the words "one more thing" typically signal the day's most important product release.

Most rumours have settled on Apple unveiling a version of its iPod digital media player capable of showing video content.

Most notably, the Wall Street Journal predicted that the company will unveil a video iPod on Wednesday, according to "people familiar with the matter".

The newspaper described the new device as having a high-quality colour screen larger than the current iPods', yet small enough to fit into the palm of the user's hand or pocket.

Apple and the Wall Street Journal have had an intimate relationship at times. The newspaper broke the news of Apple's switch to Intel processors earlier this year, and at the Macworld conference in San Francisco Jobs praised the Wall Street Journal's technology columnist Walt Mossberg, who was in the audience at the time.

Mossberg praised the latest iMac design, although the computer was flamed by designers as a failed iPod look-a-like. The columnist was less impressed with Apple's redesigned computer mouse unveiled last July.

A video iPod is not without its challenges, according to Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis at NPD Techworld. "A video iPod needs more infrastructure before the market is ready," he told vnunet.com.

Video content currently available in digital formats is limited to movie trailers, music videos and material that consumers create themselves with digital video cameras, the analyst warned.

"Full-blown downloads of Seinfeld or Lord of the Rings are not going to happen this week," he said.

Commercial music downloads were non-existent when Apple launched the first iPod, but the company succeeded at creating a market with its iTunes music store.

While Apple could choose to take a similar approach with a video iPod, Baker argued that expectations are now much higher due to the success of the music iPod.

"[Apple] may want to come out with something that begins the movement towards a video iPod, but it obviously won't have all the bells and whistles of a music iPod plus iTunes music store," the analyst said.

"Apple will be [criticised] by a lot of people for that and they may decide that it's not worth the aggravation."

Apple rumour website ThinkSecret, however, claims to have information that there is no video iPod in the works. But the site has a mixed record in its accuracy in predicting which products Jobs will unveil. 

In a recent posting, ThinkSecret predicted a new 80GB iPod at $399, raising the storage capacity of the most expensive player, as well as four new computers.

While the outside world puts the spotlight on the iPod and Apple's digital media business, the company still has a multi-billion dollar business selling desktops and laptops.

Although it would be unusual for Apple to announce new computers at such a high-profile event, it would send a strong signal that it does more than just make iPods, argued Baker.

"Apple doesn't want to turn into 'the iPod company'. Sometimes there is the perception that its computer business is getting lost in the iPod hype," he said.

A third area of speculation lies in the crossover between Apple's computer and media businesses. 

Some rumours have suggested that Apple is about to unveil an updated version of its Airport Express wireless adapter. Consumers would attach the device to their television and use it to wirelessly stream video from their computers.

This would effectively turn the Apple computers into a digital video recorder and could allow it to experiment with commercial video download services beyond the current offerings of music videos in the iTunes music store.

Once a video iPod is unveiled Apple could then extend the service to the portable device.

Regardless of the products the company ends up revealing, Apple has once again succeeded in creating a lot of buzz merely by announcing an upcoming announcement.

The vendor has mastered the art of hype by allowing some details of the pending products to leak while shrouding the larger news in secrecy.

But Baker warned that this strategy could backfire if it "generates more hype that [Apple] can satisfy".

When Apple unveiled the iPod Nano this spring it had to make available limited batches of the device each hour in its Apple stores to prevent it from selling out in the first hours after the unveiling.

A sold out product could lead to a drop in customer satisfaction, warned Baker. "Misreading the demand is the kind of danger that you get into when you play this kind of announcement game," he said.