Will Apple make an iPod U-turn?

When Apple launched the iPod in 2001, everyone thought Steve Jobs had gone mad.

Introducing a hard drive based digital music player seemed a major mistake in an era when flash was the storage medium of the future. The lack of moving parts combined with the small form factor would attract users to the flash memory based devices. Yet the iPod succeeded because it provide the storage capacity that early users demanded, had a cool design and was significantly cheaper than its flash memory based competitors. Apple had no competition to speak of, and what happened next is history.

But time could very well have caught up with the iPod. Flash memory has become dirt cheap, bringing it into the reach of digitial music players. And so the rumour has been that at MacWorld in January in San Francisco, Apple will unveil a flash memory based music player.

If the rumours are true, Apple will have to face competitors who have been in the flash based market for years, making for a much harder challenge than back in 2001. Will superior design help Apple conquer this market too?