So, Wednesday morning PST rolled by, the Apple faithful held their breath, rumour blogs placed their bets and everyone all round came away with more than the iPod refresh we were promised.

Apple today took the first steps in, once again, pushing the boundaries of the digital music market. iPod touch - a widescreen, multi-touch, 8mm thick, OS X-based iPod - slots snugly into Apple's holiday line-up as their flagship device.

The player itself closely mimics the design of the iPhone, but is somewhat thinner at only 0.31 of an inch - it really is stunning, even beside an iPhone, which is already appreciably thin.

It's also great to see Apple trickling updates for mobile OS X down through the iPod touch. Page 7 of the feature guide clearly shows iTunes reporting the system version on the iPod touch as version 1.1, bringing with it localisation, multiple keyboard layouts, improvements to typing and the ability to double-click the Home button to automatically jump straight to the iPod controls. Hopefully we'll see the same shortcut as a customisable link on the iPhone.

Also a smart move, the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Aptly named in that no video content is (yet?) available, the store (and it's UI) are still a marvel. Only last week, Nokia had bragging rights on the only dual-direction synchronisation available on a (to-be-launched) music store in the industry, but Apple's timely announcement will no doubt only serve to strengthen their position.

(Is it just me, or does anyone else absolutely adore those 'now-listening' pie-chart timers that appear when previewing music on the Wi-Fi Store?)

A software update will be available within weeks to bring the same functionality to the iPhone - and I would think, the Apple TV, in due course.

I've always believed that from the moment Apple introduced the iPhone, there wasn't so much a race on to mimic the iPhone itself, but one to bring multi-touch to the music market. If Apple had delayed news of an iPhone-without-the-phone for another quarter or two - and Creative had come to market with similar technology - then we could have seen some real iPod share erosion.

But like with the iPhone, Apple have got in early, not to mention aggressively. Key players in the mobile industry are re-evaluating their position and those in the music player industry will no doubt have to do likewise. A bad day for Creative, Microsoft and others.

Great new products take time, not least because the iPhone and iPod touch are not just hardware products. Apple's magic has always relied on 50-50 contributions from the hardware and software teams, and with good reason - mobile OS X is truly innovative.

I think we all secretly know that Apple will never own the mobile market on share alone - a luxury it enjoys with the iPod - but there's no denying that there's something attractive about the iPhone that goes beyond the quality of the device-packages on the market today (I'm including experience and software in this). We've seen some good attempts to catch Apple on this in recent weeks, some more shameful than others, and no doubt many more will hit the ground running.

Though, for a phone billed as "the best iPod ... ever made", it certainly lived up to its hype, even if everyone couldn't quite agree on it's phone capabilities. As for the iPod touch, it's fantastic to see the very same technology that has helped iPhone become a winner transition across the market so quickly.

Long live iPod touch.