Taiwan's Quanta has won the contract to manufacturer Apple's eagerly anticipated video-oriented iPod, Chinese-language newspaper the Economic Daily News has claimed citing unnamed industry sources.

Such a device is believe to be in the pipeline. Pictures said to show the new iPod were posted online earlier this month then quickly removed, allegedly at the behest of Apple's lawyers, an action usually only reserved for images of real product.

This week, it emerged that Apple's resellers have been told to expect dwindling supplies of the 60GB fifth-generation iPod. That has led some observers to speculate the player is being eased out to make room for the big-screen model, which will presumably offer at least 60GB of storage capacity.

Alas, EDN doesn't have a good record on Apple forecasts. In 2003, for example, it said Apple had signed Quanta to make a wireless display terminal. Such a product has yet to see light of day, though we shouldn't forget that Apple would still need to get someone like Quanta to produce a trial run of prototypes - devices that might ultimately evolve into the video-oriented iPod.

Speculation currently centres on whether the device will be announced on 1 April, Apple's 30th birthday, and whether it will ship with wireless headphones driven by Bluetooth technology. It's also been said Apple will announce a mobile phone product on that day, though the business case for such a product is far from convincing - sufficiently so that we're inclined to view it as one of those tricks perpetrated annually on that date. ®