Apple to Launch IPhone-Nano Combination

Less than a month after the launch of its new iPhone, Apple may be looking to release a smaller, scaled down version of the $600 iPhone based on the Nano platform. What is not yet known is how true the rumors are that have been circulating since an industry analyst discovered a patent that reads like the iPhone-Nano combination. Another question that has to be asked is, with the launch of the iPhone so recent why Apple would look to launch something like the iPod-Nano product before the end of this year.

With over 500,000 iPhones sold the first weekend it was available in June, Apple and its exceptional marketing machine saw the iPhone exceed the expectations of analysts who wondered how much market was available for a $600 cell phone, iPod, multifunctional device. When Apple CEO and maverick champion Steve Jobs presented the iPhone at a technology convention earlier this year, consumers were awestruck by the possibilities the iPhone had. At the same time, some wondered if those same consumers would find enough value in them to spend the money to purchase one. On the June day when they were released, the Cingular network was unable to keep up with the increased traffic, having to ramp up bandwidth in certain parts of the country to handle the increased demand.

For over twenty plus years, Steve Jobs and Apple have been the model company for innovation and creativity. Their first computer and everything that they have launched has been well received. That has not always translated into sales but you will be hard pressed to find an Apple detractor. Since Jobs returned to the company in the late 90s, Apple has released product after product that broke the stereotypes of products in their market space. From the iMac to the iPod, Apple brought innovation to bear in everything that they did. The release of the iPhone has been no different.

When Apple released the iPod several years ago, the landscape of the world was not as friendly as it is today in terms of mp3 and digital music players. When the market first consumed the iPod and then the Nano version, which costs about half the price of a standard version, Apple again had a winner. When Keven Chang who is an investment analyst at JP Morgan read the patent filing at the Trademarks and Patent Office, the documents were eerily similar to a merger of the iPhone and Nano.

The patent filing, which was filed in the fourth quarter of 2006 and published on July 5 of this year, stated that the product would be released during the fourth quarter of this year. That gives the iPhone six months to reach critical mass. With analysts long believing the price point too high to be mass marketed, a combo iPhone-Nano machine would not only solve the problem but create a massive market space for the combination that would fail to spend the money for a standard priced iPhone. With the possibility of an iPhone-Nano running between $150-$200, the opportunities would be endless for Apple to push the device through Cingular around the Christmas holidays.

The other belief is that as opposed to the device running as an iPhone with Nano technology, it could be a Nano with iPhone technology. With that concept, you take a Nano and put either touch screen capabilities or insert wireless phone connectivity and you have a potential merger in place.

Of course, all these ideas are simply for debate. No one knows what the folks at AppleU are doing in research and development. Apple is not commenting. Steve Jobs is his normal tight-lipped self. And the world is waiting to hear the possibilities of a scaled down iPhone merged with a Nano or vice versa. Either way it comes, consumers will be clamoring to get one of these players at a price that they can handle.

Apple is as Apple has always been, a garage company filled with some of the best and brightest minds in the technology space. It is an innovation powerhouse that has no equals. And Steve Jobs is as brilliant as one could be. If you are wagering on this, always bet Apple. They haven't missed since they forced Jobs to resign.

And he is not going anywhere this time.