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Microsoft's Zune and SanDisk's Sansa music players went wireless first, but Apple's new Wi-fi-enabled creation, the iPod Touch, will take wireless networking mainstream for mobile devices other than laptops.
Apple moved last week to release a whole swag of new products and slash the price of the iPhone by US$200 (NZ$290) to US$399 (NZ$580), no doubt frustrating buyers who queued two months ago to be the first to buy the gadget.
The new line-up includes the iPod Classic ($549), which has a staggering 160GB hard drive - that's three times the size of my computer's hard drive and 60GB larger than my digital music collection.
A new, more rectangular iPod Nano plays video, but looks squat and nowhere near as good as the existing, sleek Nano range.
The new flagship iPod is the 16GB iPod Touch (NZ$649), which improves on existing iPods by adding a web browser, the touch-screen technology of the iPhone and Wi-fi networking. An 8GB version is available for $479.
The touch screen's arrival confirms the success of the iPhone's breakthrough use of the technology.
However, the iPod's scroll wheel has always been a success and will likely remain a popular control for the music player, despite the inclusion of the cover flow software in the Touch, which Apple sold 21 million of during the US summer.
What's more significant is the built-in Wi-fi, which also features in the iPhone.
While many have grumbled about the relatively slow mobile phone data connection built into the first generation of iPhones and supported by AT&T's US network, it seems clear that Apple boss Steve Jobs sees iPhone, and now iPod, owners connecting to the internet primarily via Wi-fi hotspots.
The benefits are numerous: Wi-fi is relatively cheap to access, in some cases free, and in the US and Europe hotspots are two a penny. It provides relatively good data throughput compared with the equivalent mobile services available in the US to AT&T and, most importantly, Wi-fi fits nicely with Apple's philosophy when it comes to music.
To prove that, Apple's iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store will allow iPod Touch and iPhone users to preview and download songs directly to their device. Before, an iPod user had to first download songs to a computer then transfer them to the iPod via a USB cable.
The Wi-Fi music store will be available here, with Apple currently taking pre-orders for the iPod Touch.
Apple's tie-up with Starbucks, which won't be extended to New Zealand and Australia at this stage, is also evidence of what seems to be a focus on putting music at the centre of people's lives. Apple wants people to hang out at Starbucks sipping lattes and downloading music from the iTunes store, which will be free to access from Starbucks for iPod Touch-totting audiophiles.
Phone manufacturers are also realising the power of such a model and increasingly building Wi-fi into their products.
Of course, Wi-fi is a bog standard feature of even the most basic laptop and a wide range of software is available that allows you to do very useful things with it.
For instance, I've been using a little application called iSkoot to make Skype calls over the internet from Wi-fi hotspots. I've also been using the Wi-fi enabled Sony PSP gaming device to connect to my home network to access music and videos while away from home. Previously convoluted and unreliable, wireless is now so widespread and of such a quality that it is forefront in the minds of the makers of consumer electronics. Apple's move to embrace it is the clearest sign of that since the laptop makers made Wi-fi a must-have.
With 110 million iPods sold since 2001, the new incarnation of the world's most popular music player has the potential to take the Wi-fi hotspot access model truly mainstream.
