Apple Testing Apps on iPod 3,1 Hardware, Pinch Media Claims

Pinch Media is a company that tracks application usage on iPhone and iPod and was likely the first to spot Apple testing the iPhone 3G S with apps accessing the Internet before it was released. Similarly, Pinch Media has now collected the model number of a new iPod appearing in the company’s version reporting.

“Earlier this year, we blogged about using Pinch Analytics to detect iPhone 2,1 usage and user behavior. That was our first ‘glimpse’ of the iPhone 3GS,” the company writes on the Pinch Media blog. “Now, we’ve been noticing an ‘iPod 3,1’ string appearing in our version reporting, signifying what we believe to be a new yet-to-be-released version of the iPod Touch.”

For weeks, speculation has been growing around a new iPod touch device bearing a hefty camera with (perhaps) 5-megapixel capabilities. Some have hinted that Apple may be introducing a radically different device altogether. Naturally, everyone believes what they want to believe. However, Pinch Media’s findings don’t stop here. The company has a little more information to disclose from data gathered by Pinch Analytics about “iPod 3,1:”

- the first time an application using Pinch Analytics was run by a[n] ‘iPod3,1’ device occurred in late April 2009;
- applications using Pinch Analytics were run by ‘iPod3,1’ devices very infrequently until late May 2009, when the pace picked up slightly;
- as of this date, a few dozen distinct ‘iPod3,1’ devices have run around two dozen different applications using Pinch Analytics;
- the applications being run on ‘iPod3,1’ devices have all been the larger, more popular applications using Pinch Analytics, with hundreds of thousands to millions of unique users– other than their size, the applications have little else in common.

Developers looking to see if their own iPhone apps are being used by next-gen hardware, or simply want to learn of future hardware versions as soon as possible, can register for Pinch Analytics and install it on their device. The app’s dashboard even includes a feature that displays stats by device type, according to its makers.