iPods likely to share the stage with iPhone 5 at next week’s Apple event

While the new iPhone will likely not share the stage with a smaller iPad at next week’s Apple event (the smaller iPad is rumored to be launching in October), a string of new iPods will likely be present. Details on the changes coming in these new iPods are currently scarce, but we believe that there will be at least two new/updated iPod lines and possibly a third.

All these new lines will come in multiple colors, one of the lines will come in two size capacities, and the other two lines will come in a single storage capacity.

With the current iPod nanos and iPod shuffles both available in multiple colors (and with the nano currently available in two capacities and the shuffle in one), we think it is likely that new iPod nanos and iPod shuffles are launching next week.

However, it is possible that there is a third line as well (that, too, comes in multiple colors). With the iPod touch currently available in two colors and three capacities (black/white, 8GB, 32GB, 64GB), we don’t believe the iPod touch is the third line that comes in multiple colors.

Additionally, we have yet to confirm whether or not a new iPod touch will launch next week or at a later date.

We’re not sure what the third line is (yet), but we speculate that it may have to do with a possibly upcoming Apple device in which case moldings have begun floating around for. We previously noted the emergence of evidence for a taller, small iPod form factor with a larger display and a home button.

Many have referred to this purported design as the new iPod nano. But with Apple investing so many resources into the current iPod nano with its small, clip-able design, perhaps this taller, iOS device-like mini iPod design is a new iPod line altogether.

Perhaps, like with the new MacBook Pro models, Apple will ship current-generation and next-generation iPod nano designs. Or, perhaps, this new design is named something else altogether. With the iPad mini incoming, perhaps an iPod mini would be nice to have around as well. Again, this last bit about what third possible third line may be is just speculation.