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Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled an updated line of iPods this week, including the updated iPod Touch 4 which is essentially an iPhone 4 without the phone function. The range of gadgets available from Apple offer a degree of consistency that gives it a tactical advantage over competing smartphones and tablets.

In separate interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek and AllThingsD, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has provided some insight into yesterday’s announcements. Jobs told Bloomberg that Apple could open an App Store for the TV when the time is right. When asked if the iPad could evolve into the TV of the future, Jobs said, “That’s how I do most of my TV watching today.” Discussing Apple’s new Ping social networking service, Jobs told…

During today’s press event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that 450 million TV episodes, along with 11.7 billion songs, 100 million movies and 35 million books, have been downloaded from the iTunes store, making it the number one digital media store in the world. How will its newly announced 99-cent rental program change the marketplace? It depends what’s on offer.

When we compared Hulu Plus to Netflix Instant during its launch, we found while the back catalog was comparable, Hulu Plus had Netflix easily beat when it came to new episodes of current shows. Apple’s rental program, though, draws from a larger pool of content, which could be a game changer.

Note the use of the word “could” here. Jobs announced that so far, only ABC and Fox have signed up for the 99-cent rental program. While we don’t yet know what specific shows will or won’t be available for 99 cents, based purely on studio, the below chart indicates that about a third of the content Hulu Plus is offering this fall won’t be available for rental on iTunes.

AVAILABLE ON HULU PLUS	ITUNES RENTAL?
24	Yes
30 Rock	No
American Dad!	Yes
Bones	Yes
Brothers & Sisters	Yes
Castle	Yes
Cougar Town	Yes
Dancing With The Stars	Yes
Desperate Housewives	Yes
Family Guy	Yes
Find My Family	Yes
Friday Night Lights	No
Glee	Yes
Grey’s Anatomy	Yes
House	Yes
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution	Yes
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	No
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	No
Lie To Me	Yes
Minute to Win It	No
Modern Family	Yes
Parenthood	No
Parks and Recreation	No
Private Practice	Yes
Saturday Night Live	No
Shark Tank	Yes
Supernanny	Yes
The Biggest Loser	No
The Cleveland Show	Yes
The Good Guys	Yes
The Office	No
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno	No

NBC is clearly the missing link here, and if it decides to participate in the future, that would put Hulu Plus and iTunes on par with each other. Of course, you can’t necessarily compare a subscription service to a per-item rental service; for the $10 a month I pay for Hulu Plus (which, without shelling out $99 for an Apple TV, I can watch on my television thanks to the PS3), I have unlimited access to the service’s catalog of content.

That definitely works in Hulu Plus’s favor. When the new fall season starts, for example, I’ll be watching the theoretically rentable Castle, Glee, House and Modern Family on a weekly basis. If I were renting them a la carte from iTunes, in a month when each show premiered three new episodes I’d spend $11.88 to keep caught up, and if I wanted to review them after 48 hours, I’d have to plop down another 99 cents each. Compared to Hulu Plus, that’s not a great way to spend my money (even with the commercial-free video Apple provides).

The deal breaker here is that the iTunes catalog extends well beyond ABC and Fox, thanks to its relationships with pretty much every major TV network and studio. If cable or premium channels like AMC, HBO or Showtime — which do currently sell episodes via iTunes — join the rental program, it could be a very different marketplace indeed.

Frankly, Mad Men is half the reason I still have a cable subscription, which currently costs me $100/month. If I could rent the weekly misadventures of Don Draper for 99 cents each, that’d leave me about $96 a month in savings, which I’d find much easier to use towards a la carte rentals and purchases for series and movies not available through subscription services like Netflix and Hulu Plus.

In short: The iTunes rental program might not make me rethink my Hulu Plus subscription, but if more content providers get on board, it could make me rethink cable.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Three Reasons Over-The-Top TV Apps Will Beat Big-Cable

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Despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ statement that the company was announcing all new designs for every iPod model, the company’s legacy iPod classic, which hasn’t seen a major redesign since its introduction in 2007, remains in the lineup. The device, which offers audio, photo, and video playback capabilities, is still available from Apple’s online store, and offers 160GB of storage for $249. The iPod classic was not mentioned during…

Apple held its annual fall media event Wednesday. During the event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new line of iPods, as has become tradition, including a new shuffle, a multitouch-enabled nano, and an A4-powered, FaceTime-compatible iPod touch. The company also revealed details of iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch, as well as iOS 4.2 for iPad.

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