iPhone nano now rumored for June, Unicorn delayed again until September

Ready for more iPhone nano rumors? Good, because apparently the Chinese trade paper Economic Daily News is now reporting that Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) will be handling chip manufacturing for a low-cost device being referred to as... you guessed it: the iPhone nano. While the paper has a fairly good reputation, it is filtered through the lens of DigiTimes on our end, so as usual, take it with the required grain of salt. Still, the source is calling a June launch of the handset on the heels of an order for the components in March. The time frame is reasonable enough, and if history is any lesson here, Apple loves to intro iPhones in the Summer. Given that China has yet to see a deal for the iPhone proper, and a lower-cost entry may be perfectly tuned for vast Asian markets, the nano could gather in a whole new fold of users (and the smaller screen would be less of an issue given the need for character recognition). That theory falls in line with statements from analysts, though as always, putting too much stock in any of this speculation could be hazardous to your health. Just ask Steve Jobs.

[Via AppleInsider]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 1:29PM]

Would at&t's exclusive deal with Apple for the regular iPhone prevent other US carriers from reselling this device? I would love to use this if sold and supported through T-Mobile USA or Verizon Wireless.

T-Mobile, the smallest of the four giants could certainly use this in their lineup and I'm sure welcome by many as an alternative to at&t.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 2:24PM]

From this statment in the AppleInsider artical it looks like it will hit China first and from there no one knows.

"Adding a new twist to the rumors on Monday was a report from American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshal, who suggest that the much rumored nano phone would bypass the US markets to serve only those abroad, particularly the Far East.

Marshal based his assumption on feedback from AT&T insiders who told him that such a device had not surfaced within the wireless carrier's testing labs, which would seem to preclude a stateside launch in the near term."

[mellenger Posted Jan 13th 2009 3:04PM]

makes sense if there is no virtual keyboard but just a graffiti area for writing characters. most apps won't work though..

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 14th 2009 2:26PM]

The reasoning is simple. Sales of the iPhone in the far east have dropped because the phone was just too damn big for those crazy asians hands.

...Thus, the iPhone Nano, also known as the "little finger friendly" iPhone.

DUH

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 3:32PM]

+111111111111111111111111 for the photo!!

[PEZ Posted Jan 13th 2009 5:38PM]

What is interesting, and what people are failing to recognize (REKONYZE!) is that this new iphone may not even be the the ATT market. IT would make sense for Apple to release the nano for another carrier entirely, a CDMA would make sense, since, a lot of users just do not want to leave VZW, for isntance, to go over to ATT or Tmobile even (unlocke).

I say, send it to a CDMA and really piss off ATT :)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 6:42PM]

Low blow on the Steve Jobs joke, but definitely interesting news. Think it'll take some of the wind out of the Pre, considering Pre's intro price point will probably be 149-199 with contract?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 8:19PM]

maybe its just me but I can't envision typing/texting/ever wanting to use something as small as a nanoized version of the iPhone. So hopefully China gets it and we can get lucky with the rumored iPhone HD (or whatever its name this week is).

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 14th 2009 5:31AM]

//This comment ONLY applies to a potential western-released iPhone Nano

Although an "iPhone Nano" sounds realistic at first blush, when you actually consider it in detail, it doesn't make sense.

1) Most problematic is the text input. The iPhone virtual keyboard is already quite small and many find it usable only in landscape mode. Shrinking the screen and thus shrinking the onscreen keyboard could potentially make the device even more difficult to use.

2) An iPhone with a smaller display would complicate the user interface situation. If the device had the same resolution in a smaller screen, user interface elements like text, dialogs, buttons, and other controls would shrink. On the other hand, if the smaller display had lower resolution, it'd be even worse with display elements literally going off the screen.
So regardless, developers would have to maintain two separate versions of their apps which seems unlikely to be something Apple would want to cause.

The only way I see this happening is if Apple is working on a new OS and SDK update that creates a UI scaling system that makes the iPhone essentially resolution independent. This does make sense however since it is likely that a future iPhone will have a higher resolution display, so this may be necessary anyways. Also, resolution independence may find its way into the next desktop version of OSX -- OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard.