AppleInsider | Analyst predicts iBooks, touch-screen iPod at event in April

AppleInsider | Analyst predicts iBooks, touch-screen iPod at event in April: "Analyst predicts iBooks, touch-screen iPod at event in April

By Kasper Jade
Published: 09:00 AM EST

Analysts for Needham & Co this week said they believe Apple will hold a special media event sometime in April to unveil Intel-based iBooks and a touch-screen video iPod.

'At the end of his Macworld keynote address in January, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, noted that the company will celebrate its 30th birthday on April 1, 2006,' analyst Charles Wolf wrote in a research note released to clients on Thursday. 'While it’s possible that Jobs’ was simply pointing out the longevity of Apple, we interpret it as a signal that Apple will hold a major birthday party in the form of new product event around that date, most likely in early April.'

In recent weeks, sources have told AppleInsider that Apple is preparing for a special event to introduce new products, but were short on specifics and did not provide a precise time-frame.

'The one sure-fire product Apple has to introduce is an iBook running on the Intel single core Yonah processor,' wrote Wolf. The analyst notes that the K-12 school-buying season begins in May; and the iBook represents an increasing fraction of Apple sales in this market. 'Failure to have an Intel iBook ready for the school-buying season could sig"