Thinner than the iPhone touch-screen iPod coming?

The long-rumoured touch-screen iPod is set to be announced among other iPod products during this Wednesday's "The Beat Goes On" event, sources confirmed to MacScoop.

According to the reports we've obtained, the device will have a similar form factor to the iPhone but should be thinner. It will include a touch-screen display with dimensions similar to the iPhone.

The question remaining unanswered is whether the new iPod will include flash memory or hard drive-based storage. Considering the fact it is thinner than the iPhone, sources speculated in favour of flash-based storage but today's pricing for this kind of storage is quite prohibitive compared to small hard drives.

The report we've obtained confirms a MacScoop report published in January which revealed that Apple was working on a widescreen iPod that uses the same display and form factor as the iPhone.

Other reports confirming this rumour have emerged more recently but there are some contradictions with the information MacScoop has obtained. 9to5mac believes this new iPod will be slightly thicker than the iPhone while ThinkSecret claims Apple will use 1.8 inch hard drives instead of flash.

Apple will also renew its other iPod lineups. The nano is expected to have slightly modified form factor and new colours as well as a new, Mac OS X-based user interface while the shuffle could also see some minor changes. In addition, both should receive storage-bumps.

Sources told us that Apple could also introduce a totally new product during the event or possibly later this year and have previously mentioned the possibility that the Apple TV is updated so as to decode 1080p content without providing release timeframe for such a change.