New Touch: New Business?

The second coming of the iPod touch is pretty significant for Apple's core business due to two primary reasons.
#1: Price Point
Apple has brought the entry price of the iPod touch down near the magical $200 price point which is the "trigger price" in consumer electronics. The iPod was really just a novelty until the iPod mini was introduced at the $199 price point, at which a majority of users could justify spending their hard earned money on essentially a toy. The design has also been greatly improved with physical buttons for volume control in addition to a built in speaker (great for sharing those lovely YouTube videos with your buddies at work)

#2: Software Features
Consolidating to the 2.1 firmware and allowing for Mic input (also available on the new nano) for "voice recordings" will easily lend themselves to VoIP applications to be used over a wifi network, conferencing with buddies, or communication for games/software that might have an interactive part to them. This really bypasses the need for Application support through the dock connector which is what most users wanted to do with that extended functionality anyways: add a mic.

Also, with the back to school promotion that Apple ran this year, they really boosted the installation base of devices capable of utilizing the App store, which is just going to further generate revenue for their "third leg" of their business as well as add continual value in the minds of the consumers with the products without actually really giving them anything else for free.