It's in the rumor mill, but it's interesting.

According to AppleInsider, investment bank Piper Jaffray has stated that an Apple special event to announce both new iPods and Mac notebooks seems likely for September.

The company has used a September gathering to launch new iPods for the past three years, analyst Gene Munster advised clients in a research report released Wednesday, adding that Apple shares have risen about 4% on average from the week before those events to the week after.

Munster also cited that shares have risen more than 47% between the week before these special events to the four months after.

With this event, Munster speculated that Apple will refresh its iPod family via a number of "pricing and capacity changes." These changes seem most likely along the iPod shuffle and iPod nano lines, though no price reductions are expected on these models. Conversely, the iPod touch is likely to see a redesign "and a new $199 price point, in line with the iPhone."

Munster also expressed the belief that Apple's notebook families are in for a complete overhaul. In particular, the analyst sees Apple unveiling new industrial designs for both the MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks and possibly reentering the US$999 price point for the MacBook notebook, bringing it back down to previous iBook prices when the model was available.

"We note that the MacBook has had the same design since its launch over two years ago, and the MacBook Pro has had essentially the same design since its launch over 2.5 years ago, which was very similar in design to the PowerBook G4 released over 5.5 years ago," he told clients. "To compare, the long-running iMac G5 design lasted three years."

The analyst also expressed his thoughts on how APple will utilize its multi-touch technology in future products. He noted that gestures recently added to the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro "are just the beginning of Apple's exploration of multi-touch on the Mac," and that the company clearly holds plans to leverage its technology portfolio from the iPhone to simultaneously advance Mac experience.

"Currently, these gestures require the same touch-sensing technology used in the iPhone, but they use a traditional looking trackpad," the analyst told clients. "Eventually, we expect Apple to change the trackpad to backlit color screens for a more dynamic user interface on the Mac."

Even with these changes on the horizon, Munster stated that he doesn't expect Apple to introduce a full touch-screen MacBook "until the technology has fully matured over the next 2-3 years."

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