More than any other iPod, the venerable iPod nano has tended to be the chrysalid of the family, morphing from one radically different shape to the next with every successive generation.

The first couple generations of the iPod nano tended to be long and thin devices, to be replaced with a squatter square third-gen model, before returning to its familiar rectangle shape for the fourth and fifth generations, only to become a radically different touchscreen Shuffle-sized device in 2010.

Crazy. So what’s next for the iPod nano? According to a new report, it’ll stay a multitouch device, but again become long, thin and rectangular. It’ll even get a home button!

Periodically accurate Japanese Apple blog Macotakara is reporting that Apple will release the new iPod nano this autumn so that it looks more like an iPod touch. This includes giving it a new iOS-style home button.

But will it run iOS, and therefore apps? The current iPod nano has an interface that looks a lot like iOS, but it is actually just a heavily skinned version of the standard iPod operating system. It seems likely, given the much smaller screen size and system requirements of the iPod nano versus the iPod touch, that Apple would continue down this route.

That’s not to say you should count apps out of the picture, though. Macotakara says that the new iPod nano will be accompanied by the launch of a brand new iTunes service. They have no details on what this service will entail, but a smaller app store for the new iPod nano isn’t the craziest idea.

What do you think: bunk or not? I wouldn’t be surprised if the iPod nano shapeshifted once again, but is Apple really going to abandon the watch-like iPod nano form factor everyone loves so much? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: Macotakara