As expected, Steve Jobs unveiled today new iPods with touch screens inspired from iPhone, video games and new storage capacities.

Jobs began by announcing that iTunes sold over 600 million copies of iTunes and that Apple has sold 95 million TV shows. After, he introduced a new iTunes version which will support ringtones. Practically, thanks to this new feature users can create custom ringtones from any of the 500.000 songs offered by Apple’s music store. Of course, there is a price to be paid, and a ring tone will cost 99¢ in addition to the 99¢ song price.

As you can imagine the ringtones are only for iPhone. “We're going to do ringtones in our own special way. Of course these are for the iPhone. What we want: rather than let someone else make ringtones, we people to be able to make their own."

After he finished introducing ringtones Jobs began unveiling the new iPods. "We're approaching holiday 2007 and today we're going to refresh or replace every single product on this lineup," said CEO Steve Jobs during the “The Beat Goes On”' event held at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

First, Jobs unveiled the new iPod nano. It has video capabilities and a 2.0-inch display that features the same resolution as the previous-generation full-sized iPod: 320 x 240 pixels

"We've achieved this with a screen with the highest pixel density we've ever shipped: 204ppi," explained Jobs. "And the screen is just gorgeous. We you see it you're going to really love it."

Beside video, the new iPod nano ships with three games and comes in two versions: a 4GB version in silver for $149, and 8GB version in colours, for $199.

iPod nano delivers up to 24 hours of audio playback or five hours of video playback on a single charge, and is encased in a beautiful new all-metal design made with anodized aluminum and polished stainless steel and comes in five new colors—silver, black, blue, green and a RED special edition.

“We’ve taken the most popular music player in the world and added stunning video playback just in time for the holiday season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The iPod nano just keeps getting better and better with each new generation.”

Alo Apple CEO announced a new name and new features for the iPod. "Now the iPod's got a funny name," said Jobs. "It's just called “the iPod” because it was the first one. We thought, “It's time to give it a name.” We're going to call it the iPod Classic."

According to Jobs, the iPod Classic is now thinner than the 30GB thin model that preceded it. Apple announced two versions: the new 80GB model costs $249, while the 160GB model costs $349.

And after iPod Classic, Jobs started to talk about the iPod everyone was expecting: iPod Touch with WiFi capabilities.

The new iPod Touch looks exactly like the iPhone. It has the same size, but 8mmis thinner, according to "We think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World." said Jobs. “We've built WiFi in and we've made it USABLE. We're REALLY excited about this."

Similar to iPhone, the iPod touch's battery lasts for 22 hours of audio playback and five hours of video playback per charge, according to Apple. The player will be offered in two versions 8GB and 16GB, for $299 and $399.

The iPod Touch also includes Safari, that lets users wirelessly view web pages just as they look on their computer, and features Google Search or Yahoo! oneSearch. Also it offers Apple’s YouTube application.

Also Jobs announced a new version of iTunes: iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, which will offer to the music fans the ability to browse, search, preview, purchase and download songs and albums from the iTunes Music Store over a Wi-Fi network directly onto their iPod Touch or iPhone. Prices and selection on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store are the same as on the regular iTunes Store.

Then Jobs announced an exclusive partnership with Starbucks that lets customers wirelessly browse, search for, preview, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks onto their iPod touch, iPhone or PC or Mac running iTunes while at a participating location.

When a customer enters a participating location, their device will automatically recognize the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store using a high-speed Wi-Fi wireless network with no connection fee or hotspot login. Customers will be able to browse, search and freely preview millions of songs, including a new “Now Playing” service which displays the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that moment, then easily buy and download songs or albums directly to their device.

The service will make its debut at more than 600 Starbucks company-operated locations in New York and Seattle on October 2.

“Getting free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and the ‘Now Playing’ service at Starbucks is a great way for customers to discover new music,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Imagine walking into a participating Starbucks, hearing a great song, and being able to instantly download it onto your iPod or iPhone. We think this is very cool.”

But Jobs dropped the real bomb in the end of the event. He announced that Apple it is on track to sell its one millionth iPhone before the end of September, and….hold your breath…to make iPhone affordable for even more customers this holiday season, it is lowering the price of the most popular iPhone model with 8GB of storage from $599 to just $399.

“The surveys are in and iPhone customer satisfaction scores are higher than we’ve ever seen for any Apple product,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve clearly got a breakthrough product and we want to make it affordable for even more customers as we enter this holiday season.”

Jobs said the 8GB iPhone is available immediately for $399 in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores and AT&T retail stores. The iPhone 4GB model will be sold while supplies last.

Analyzing Apple’s Announcements

And now as the show has ended let’s take a quick look at Apple’s announcements. It seems like this time the rumor mill has proved to be right, as everybody expected Apple to announce some new iPods, maybe even inspired by its winning product iPhone.

As Steve Jobs noted, Apple has refreshed its iPod lineup just in time to make a new sales record during the holiday season. Also the partnership with Starbuck is very important as the iTunes is first about the music, and not TV shows. The new iPod Touch seems to be a great product, especially for those who don’t want (or need) an iPhone.

But beside iPods and iTunes with all their bells and whistles the more interesting was the news about iPhone. To slash the price of a product which was launched just two months ago is rather unusual and it proves Apple’s determination to gain a solid market share in the mobile phones market.

Yesterday the research firm iSuppli said that in its first month of presence on the market, the iPhone accounted for 1.8 percent of all mobile handset sales in the U.S, meaning that more than 220,000 handsets have been bought during summer’s hottest month.

Earlier this year the same company iSuppli has revealed that the production of the 8 GB version of iPhone costs around $265.83.

Also according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker the big story of the last quarter was none other than Apple’s iPhone. "Even though limited in the number of units shipped, the iPhone is likely to have a disproportionately large impact on the industry. For one, it has pushed the envelope on industrial design and user interfaces for all vendors.” said Shiv K. Bakhshi, Ph.D., director of worldwide mobile device research at IDC, at the time.

Just imagine what will happen after the announcement made today by Steve Jobs. The hottest phone of the moment is to be sold for only $399 instead of $599. Maybe it’s time that the traditional mobile phones makers start worry about this newcomer.

In January when Jobs introduced the iPhone he said Apple is targeting 10 million iPhones in consumers’ hands by the end of 2008. With this price cut, maybe iPhone will surpass even his expectations!