The iPod market has undoubtedly been saturated. There really hasn’t been an innovation in that segment of Apple’s products; the iPod touch is really an iPod only in name, and more of an iPhone sibling. For most people, upgrading to the newer Nanos and Classics isn’t justifiable or affordable. With an addition of a camera, that might change:

Thank God those iPhones are so expensive, and Apple will only sell 20 million or so of them in 2009. If Apple added cameras to its line of iPods, there would be another 3+million of them hitting the market per month, and the low end of the digital video camera market could be crushed.

Uh oh.

That’s exactly what we’re hearing is going to happen. One of our sources in Asia say that Apple has placed an order for a massive number of camera modules of the type that they include in the iPhone. These are inexpensive cameras, in the $10 range. And the size of the order, our source says, means they can only be used for one thing – the iPods.

Flip, you better be on guard — when cameras come to the iPod, it’s over.

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