Apple Inc. unveiled a snazzier line of its iPod on Wednesday, with new designs for every model of the popular media device in hopes of kick-starting holiday sales.
"We've gone wild," Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said. "It's the biggest change in the iPod lineup ever."
At a presentation to reporters and investors, Jobs said that to date the company has sold 275 million iPods.
Still, while Apple's iPods dominate the music- and media-player market, sales growth has moderated in past years. Jobs has turned his attention toward the iPhone and more recently the iPad, which became an immediate success when it was launched in April.
As a result, the company has revamped its product line ahead of the key holiday sales season. Jobs called it the "strongest lineup of iPods we've ever had."
The revised iPod shuffle, for instance, has been updated to include playlists, buttons to navigate the volume and is smaller than the previous model. He said it would play 15 hours of music, and would come in five different colors at a price of $49.
The nano, another model, now includes FM radio, 24 hours of music. It will be priced at $149 for the 8-gigabyte version or $179 for the 16-gigabyte version, Jobs said.
A third revised iPod model, the touch, will include a front camera and is thinner than the current model. It will be priced from $229 to $399 depending on storage, and will be available next week.
Jobs also announced an update to its operating system, due out next week, saying it was meant to fix bugs on some of its popular mobile devices such as the iPhone 4. He said yet another update would come out in November.
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