Analysts opine that at its annual media event, which has been scheduled for September 9 and will be held at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple would expectedly unveil its yearly upgrade of the popular iPod line. The company might also plan to present a new, camera-equipped line of iPods, directly challenging portable digital-video recorders like the Flip.

For the event, which will kick off at 10 a.m. PT, Apple has started extending invitations to the members of the technology press. The invitations feature a dancer’s image with an iPod plugged into the ears; with the catchphrase being Rolling Stone’s song line - “It's only rock and roll, but we like it!”

Noting that the event will not feature Apple’s long-rumored ‘tablet’ device, Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech, said: “The expectations are that Apple will add video camera functionality to the iPod Touch, ‘still camera’ functionality to the Nano and refresh the iTunes software. That's pretty much it, although we could potentially see a refresh on the desktop too, lower prices and faster processors.” 

In addition, Marshall said that Apple would largely resort to its usual practice of enhancing the hardware of its products, particularly the storage space, rather than announce a reduction in the prices of any of its models, other than the low-end Shuffle!