With only weeks until Christmas and in the middle of the busiest shopping season, MacObserver is hinting at rumors that Apple might release an upgraded iPod Touch just in time for Christmas. Could this be an indication that their September upgraded 3rd generation iPod Touch has not delivered to expectations?

With only months passed since the release of the upgraded 3rd gen iPod Touch one has to ask the question if the latest rumors are in response to a slowdown in sales for the device, especially considering that the launch received lukewarm at best reception since it did not include the integrated camera, which was the hottest rumor leading up the event. Information later surfaced that the 3rd gen iPod Touch did not receive a camera because they ran into some technical difficulties prior to the release so had to pull the camera from the original release.

Although the recently released 3rd gen iPod Touch included an upgrade to 64gb memory, and improvements to processor and speed for a better gaming experience, our poll revealed that a lot of people who were considering buying the new iPod Touch were disappointed with the lack of iPod Touch camera.

If these latest rumors have any meat on their bones it could create a world of problems for Apple leading up to Christmas, which again is probably an argument against an upgrade this time of the year. First of all, a lot of people are probably already well into their gift shopping and might have purchased the current 3rd gen iPod Touch already, so an upgrade from Apple now could led to mass return of the current device and complaints from customers who have bought the new one earlier and are not eligible for returning that device for the upgraded one with a camera. It would also break with normal patterns in product releases from Apple, although that is to be expected if they are dealing with a slowdown in sales for the iPod Touch.

Since these initial rumors first surfaced, new rumors have been circulating blogs and news-sites predicting that the camera will come to the 3rd gen iPod Touch sometime during spring 2010, which would actually make more sense in terms of upgrade launches, although i still believe it will lead to a lot of potential angry Christmas customers. Would you be happy with Apple releasing a camera upgrade in early 2010 if you get the current 3rd gen iPod Touch for Christmas?

Should the rumors be true, and Apple releases an upgraded iPod Touch with camera before Christmas, i doubt they will do it across all models of the iPod Touch, but rather do it for one of the top models (32gb or 64gb) at a premium price. This could potentially make sense in terms of driving up average sales price and leveraging the interest in the marketplace for the iPod Touch with a camera.

For now we just have to treat it as a rumor and wait to see what comes out of Cupertino in the coming weeks. In the meantime you might want to check out our best price iPod Touch table for the UK for the current 3rd generation iPod Touch.

(10 votes, average: 4.7 out of 5)

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