Apple is planning to release Wi-Fi enabled iPods in the second half of this year, according to Taiwanese manufacturing industry sources talking to the DigiTimes. 

Apparently Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) will manufacture the Wi-Fi modules, while Foxconn will assemble the iPods.

Foxconn is one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world; it already makes the Mac Mini and iPods for Apple (and the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, amongst other things).

According to DigiTimes, USI will begin shipping Wi-Fi modules in April, and Foxconn may start manufacturing Wi-Fi iPods in the third quarter of this year.

DigiTimes listed its source as “Taiwan portable music player component makers”, whatever that exactly means, so this news should be treated as rumor.

Wi-Fi for the iPod makes a lot of sense, since it could mean that iPod fans could purchase music directly from iTunes without the need for a PC or Mac.

It could also help the iPod become more than just another music player by allowing users to access to the Internet, and services such as email. Having said that Apple has had a lot of success with the iPod as a media player, so perhaps it won’t want to play with that formula too much.

Microsoft’s Zune already offers limited wireless functionality, and a number of other media player manufacturers have launched, or are planning to launch, Wi-Fi enabled media players. Perhaps it’s not that outrageous to think that Apple is also adding this feature to the iPod.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 11:15 am under Apple, iPod, iTunes.  Print This Post

Read more entries by John Pospisil.