The iPhone is over priced, under spec'd and tied to a single service provider for "multiple years". That and the simple fact that cell phone companies (at least in the US) tend to want to have almost draconian control over any handset used on their networks will help to guarantee that third party software for the platform will be either non-existent or exorbitantly priced, keeping the iPhone from rising to the level of greatness that Jobs and Co. expect it to. In the end I see the iPhone following in the footsteps of its ancestor, the Newton, as a cult favorite and ahead of its time in many ways, but in the end little more than an interesting footnote in Apple's history. That being said, I don't think Apple is going to do anything to potentially harm iPhone sales including releasing a new iPod that would directly compete with the iPhone's new media features. So I don't think we will be seeing a new iPod for at least a few months after the iPhone becomes available.

When the next generation iPod does become available, it is going to have a similar if not identical form factor to the iPhone. It will feature the same large multitouch display as the iPhone, with the same array of sensors to detect the player's orientation. The 6th generation iPod will most likely also feature a very similar interface to the iPhone, though I sincerely doubt that the next generation of iPods will feature the same robust software package as its telephonic cousin. I also think the next generation iPod will include at least some form of wireless connectivity, not for Zune-esque sharing, but for streaming video wirelessly to the new Apple TV (via 802.11n perhaps) and possibly wireless syncing with iTunes. We can be 100% sure of seeing a boost in storage space in the new 6th generation iPods, especially as video content become more and more important to Apple's iTunes offering, with capacities meeting if not exceeding 100Gb in the largest models. If any of my predictions turn out to be true, the 6th generation of the venerable iPod will be an incredible device and a giant leap forward for the product and the industry. 

 gadgets, media player, mp3, Apple, iPod, iPhone