wanna let you and others know that there is an alternative ...
Navigate to Computer>Local Disk>Program Files. Look for iTunes folder to see if there is a numeric value in parenthesis after the file name [for example (537)]. Not sure if it was windows or a virus, but this was the root cause of the issue. Here also, this extension was added to my iPod folder.
Navigate to Computer>Local Disk>Program Files (x86) for Vista and Windows 7 users. check for the same there. Here, my Quicktime, Apple Software Update, and Bonjour folders also had the same random extension.
In the Control Panel>Programs and Features, I unistalled Quicktime, Apple Software Update, and iTunes from the computer. Then manually deleted the iPod, Apple Software Update, Quicktime, and iTunes folders within the two Program Files locations that had the random extensions to them.
Download and install iTunes again from http://www.apple.com/itunes/. This reinstalled all the necessary components. I launched iTunes without error. I connected my iPhone 5 and it synchronized without error.
Problem fixed.