Why Apple won’t make an iPhone Nano

There has been rampant speculation all over the internet about an iPhone Nano. The rumor mill was whipped into a frenzy around the time of Mac World, when a couple of case makers had iPhone Nano cases appear on their websites just before Phil Schiller took the stage to give his keynote address. Of course the iPhone Nano didn’t materialize then, and now reports are coming out that the Nano may come out as a China only (or China first) release. Read on for the full story

The only problem is, it just doesn’t make any sense. The thinking goes “After a couple of iterations of the iPod, Apple started making smaller iPods to appeal to a broader range of consumers, so they will do the same thing with the iPhone”. Here is a little secret, the iPhone is not an iPod. The iPhone is already competitively priced when compared to other high end phones in the US. I can’t imagine Apple trying to position a device below the iPhone, when taking a monthly carrier plan into consideration.

In addition , a smaller iPhone would mean a smaller screen, and that would probably indicate a lower screen resolution, otherwise the fonts would be too small to read. Another reason a lower screen resolution would be  a major problem is the App Store. The App Store is now a major part of the iPhone’s success, and splitting the iPhone into 2 resolutions would wreak havoc with apps, maybe future apps would be able to scale, but there are already more than 10,000 apps available.

It is not impossible to think that there will be additional models of iPhone, but an iPhone targeted to enterprise users seems much more likely. With the inclusion of Exchange Activesync in the 2.0 firmware, Apple made plain their intentions of making the iPhone a business device. In fact there were rumors that HSBC  Bank was considering replacing their Blackberries with iPhones (back when banks had money). There was even at least one report of apple showing an iPhone with a side sliding keyboard to some carrier partners and  enterprise customers. This seems like a much more likely device to be made than a Nano.

Either way, it’s likely that Apple will release an update to the iPhone this summer , possible to coincide with Steve Jobs return after his hiatus. I just don’t think it’s going to be the Nano.