With today's announcements, AT&T has stated that 146,000 iPhones were activated in the first 36 hours of sale (the last 36 hours of AT&T's financial quarter). While the true numbers are yet to be known, we all wonder how Apple will use their marketing to extend their market share further into the well established cell phone field. Many analysts (and Apple consumers) make claim to Apple creating a smaller brother to the iPhone with the iPhone nano moniker. Recent patent filings help to back up the ideas of future releases. What can we expect to see, given what we already know? There has been an overwhelmingly strong reaction to the iPhone. The hype led many to believe that this would be the end all and everything jesus-phone. What can you do? Regardless, despite a few shortcomings, the phone delivers and provides an experience to users beyond what we're all used to: cheap, clunky and bloated. In steps Apple with an answer, iPhone nano.
If you look at Apple's strategy for MP3 players with the iPod you will notice their three products: iPod, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle. The iPod provides the user with a large screen, large capacity, but with a price tag and physical size to go along with it. The iPod nano offers many of the same features (sans video, games, etc.) though with a smaller screen, smaller capacity and a physically smaller body. How can we transfer this concept to the now popular and well-known iPhone? Apple introduces an iPhone nano.
Positioned as gap filler between iPod and iPhone, many consumers who are hungry for an Apple experience but do not need a full-featured iPhone could be lured easily. There are people who simply don't need another iPod-sized object to carry around if they already own a 5g iPod. It's familiarity to users lies in the name with a similar design. I would not expect a touch screen to be present. Its small size would warrant the use of small screen and click-wheel, similar to recent patent filings. One would not expect to see features such as internet, email, YouTube, Google maps, or the like present on an iPhone nano. It's not an internet communications device; it is simply iPod nano + phone. What do we consumers gain? We get the ability to not need to carry around many devices at once and still having the opportunity to own them. A camera phone is no replacement for a digital camera, though it's convenient. An iPod nano, for some, can't replace an iPod with video. But for those users, such as my mother, who would like to have some music, cannot be without a cell phone, and just perhaps does not want to carry a second device (iPod), this product would be wonderful.
The other gain here is that such an iPhone would be able to work on any cellular network, as long as Apple doesn't have agreements barring it from doing so (which may or may not be in place). We don't need to worry about 3G vs. EDGE; Apple could make a GSM and CDMA version.
One last comment I would make is that I expect Apple would use the click-wheel for dialing as well. It would be like Apple to see a way to reduce the use of a dialing-pad with many buttons and turn it into just 1 with a scroll wheel. Sure this will become the subject of much criticism and people will laugh for Apple going back to the idea of a rotary dial. However Apple may use some current technologies to make this a great experience for people. The first to note is that Apple would have gotten rid of tiny numbers that some people have trouble seeing or dialing (depending on the size of fingers). As we have seen on the iPhone keyboard, as numbers were scrolled across, there could be an enlargement on screen to make it easily readable. We may also see the "rubber-band" effect where when one reaches the end of a list, the list tends to bounce a bit for visual feedback. As one scrolls around the iPhone nano and clicks a number, the visual rotary pad would spring back to zero, much as an old rotary phone might.
If you look at Apple's strategy for MP3 players with the iPod you will notice their three products: iPod, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle. The iPod provides the user with a large screen, large capacity, but with a price tag and physical size to go along with it. The iPod nano offers many of the same features (sans video, games, etc.) though with a smaller screen, smaller capacity and a physically smaller body. How can we transfer this concept to the now popular and well-known iPhone? Apple introduces an iPhone nano.
Positioned as gap filler between iPod and iPhone, many consumers who are hungry for an Apple experience but do not need a full-featured iPhone could be lured easily. There are people who simply don't need another iPod-sized object to carry around if they already own a 5g iPod. It's familiarity to users lies in the name with a similar design. I would not expect a touch screen to be present. Its small size would warrant the use of small screen and click-wheel, similar to recent patent filings. One would not expect to see features such as internet, email, YouTube, Google maps, or the like present on an iPhone nano. It's not an internet communications device; it is simply iPod nano + phone. What do we consumers gain? We get the ability to not need to carry around many devices at once and still having the opportunity to own them. A camera phone is no replacement for a digital camera, though it's convenient. An iPod nano, for some, can't replace an iPod with video. But for those users, such as my mother, who would like to have some music, cannot be without a cell phone, and just perhaps does not want to carry a second device (iPod), this product would be wonderful.
The other gain here is that such an iPhone would be able to work on any cellular network, as long as Apple doesn't have agreements barring it from doing so (which may or may not be in place). We don't need to worry about 3G vs. EDGE; Apple could make a GSM and CDMA version.
One last comment I would make is that I expect Apple would use the click-wheel for dialing as well. It would be like Apple to see a way to reduce the use of a dialing-pad with many buttons and turn it into just 1 with a scroll wheel. Sure this will become the subject of much criticism and people will laugh for Apple going back to the idea of a rotary dial. However Apple may use some current technologies to make this a great experience for people. The first to note is that Apple would have gotten rid of tiny numbers that some people have trouble seeing or dialing (depending on the size of fingers). As we have seen on the iPhone keyboard, as numbers were scrolled across, there could be an enlargement on screen to make it easily readable. We may also see the "rubber-band" effect where when one reaches the end of a list, the list tends to bounce a bit for visual feedback. As one scrolls around the iPhone nano and clicks a number, the visual rotary pad would spring back to zero, much as an old rotary phone might.
