14 DAY TRIAL // A Japanese source that has previously leaked accurate information pertaining to Apple’s unconfirmed products is pointing to a Chinese repair site which appears to be stocking iPod touch 5 hardware.
Macotakara, a source that has taken great pride in leaking Apple hardware in recent months (though not always spot on), has stumbled upon what appears to be a genuine iPod touch 5 part.
Specifically, it’s the headphone jack whose design fits the tapered back shell of any iPod touch quite conveniently.
According to Chinese repair site Luna Commerce (the original source of these images), this white headphone jack goes in a fifth-generation iPod touch.
As iPod touch owners will agree, the jack sports the same slope-like profile as found current-generation hardware.
We reported back in June that developers digging around Apple’s then-fresh iOS 5 betas had been able to confirm the existence (at least in code designations) of several new devices planned for future release.
References to a next-generation iPod touch seemed to dismiss rumors that Apple was not abandoning the player, despite declining sales of all iPods.
The designation, however - <string>iPod 4,2</string> - would indicate a minor update of the portable player, rather than a major refresh.
The following month, a less-technically savvy Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed to have dug up information that Apple had plans to launch a fifth-generation iPod touch in 2011.
Kuo had allegedly spoken to Apple’s own suppliers and reportedly learned that an order had been placed for a white version of the iPod touch player.
If the analyst's intel was accurate, the devices should already be in mass production by now.
Notably, the iPod touch is the only Apple player that sells somewhat well, whereas other iPods continue to sell less and less units by the passing of each quarter.