The Apple event Wednesday in San Francisco, which begins at 1 p.m. East Coast time, is all about the music.
According to the usual chatty confection of Wall Street analysts, Apple bloggers and music-label executives, you can expect new iPods, an updated version of iTunes with a ring tones store and additional ways to share playlists, and an effort to reinvigorate album sales with a new multisong album format that will include digital extras like artwork and lyrics.
There is also the question of whether Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, might take the stage. But with Mr. Jobs still convalescing from a liver transplant — and this being a somewhat minor news event — an appearance seems unlikely.
More likely is that the crowd of assembled journalists and Apple employees will be treated to a live performance from an A-list musician or two, who will serenade the straight-faced crowd in what will surely count as their most awkward gig ever.
Most people will be watching to see what Apple has devised to stimulate iPod sales. Back in 2004, iPod sales were growing by triple digits, and the music players accounted for 40 percent of the company’s overall revenue. So far this year, iPod sales have remained largely flat, even declining by 7 percent in the last quarter. For the year, iPod revenue will be down 10 percent compared to last year and account for only 22 percent of Apple’s total revenue, predicts Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
This is not necessarily a bad thing for Apple. Many presumptive iPod buyers are turning instead to the iPhone, a considerably more expensive device with higher margins. The iPhone is the ultimate converged device, packing digital music, video games, navigation and much more into a single cellular handset.
As Apple tries to spark iPod sales, you can expect the new iPods to start to embrace a little more of that versatility as well, adding features like digital cameras and the ability to record video. That may not be enough to return the iPod line to its days as a high-octane growth business. But it could pose new problems for the makers of single-purpose devices like digital cameras and video recorders, whose features they are gobbling up.
More to come beginning at 1 p.m. I’ll be live-blogging the event here on Bits, and my colleague Claire Cain Miller will be live-tweeting from the Bits Twitter account, nytimesbits.
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