Maybe you’ve noticed or maybe you haven’t, but either way Apple has done something interesting to the new iPod photo besides shrinking the price. Apple has also shrunk the photo in iPod photo on the new black box with gold lettering. Now why would they do that? Mmm, got me since every other iPod still has it’s secondary name as large as the primary name. The shuffle and mini both appear nice and big right next to “iPod” and I wouldn’t be surprised to find “ClickWheel” on the plain ones soon.

So why the small notation of “photo” then? Want to know my thinking? Have you been reading my thoughts on the iPod of late here? Then you already know what I’m going to write…Apple’s gearing up for the iPod blue, as in iPod Bluetooth. :) The new packaging is a two fold deal. First, Apple will most likely have color screens on all of the iPods by years end. Remember all the rumors to the new iPod mini’s having color screens which turned out to be false? Well, maybe we just haven’t waited long enough to allow it to happen. Since all iPod’s will be color and thus have the ability to display photos, there’ll be no need to differentiate the photo anymore. Second, the secondary naming thing is getting carried away and Apple most likely only wants very different iPod’s to be holding up a very different secondary name. The shuffle is the small USB stick without an LCD (which I say will be on the G2); the mini is smaller in size and capacity then it’s big brother; the iPod (original) is “same as it ever was”; the iPod blue will be the only one with Bluetooth integration that can be used with Bluetooth headsets made by Apple’s other partner, HP and their blue logo.

So, that is my crazy reasoning to why we now have the iPod (photo) and I think I’m going to found right in the near future about this. When, I can’t say? I would like to think this summer at Macworld Boston, but I doubt Toshiba is willing to give up their 80GB drive yet which will be the other big feature of the iPod blue. I would say it will come just weeks before Christmas just as Apple did with the iPod photo release last year. We’ll see…