Apple’s new iPod touch and iPod nano, announced alongside the iPhone 5 at an event last month, saw their shipping times improve over the weekend, from an expected two week shipping timeframe to 5-7 business days. The  new iPod were first given the open-ended retail window of “October” when initially announced, and then began rolling out to pre-order customers earlier this month.
The new iPod touch boasts the 4-inch display of the iPhone 5, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and the new Lightning connector I/O standard. The touch does get the shaft a bit when it comes to processor (A5 vs. A6 on iPhone) and RAM (512MB vs. 1GB on the smartphone), but reviews generally suggest that in practice, the difference isn’t all that noticeable. Apple also offers the latest iPod touch in six different colors, a first for this particular line of its personal media players.
The new iPod nano is another dramatic design departure for Apple’s most affordable media player with a screen, with a 2.5-inch multi-touch display, Bluetooth and a Lightning port. This generation replaces the small square nano with the integrated clip, which spawned countless variants on the wristwatch strap case accessory.
When the new iPod first started showing specific anticipated ship times, they were at 3 weeks back in the first week of October, so going to 5-7 days now is probably just the clock ticking down on that original estimate, which means Apple is still selling units from what’s likely its second large production batch after handling pre-order shipments. Generally, Apple’s iPods have enjoyed declining fortunes compared to its other product lines. This year, watching how the new iPods fare in a lineup that includes not only the iPhone and iPad, but also a host of iPad mini models should prove very interesting.