It seems that the cell phone market has,
among other things, polarized into two distinct camps. On the one hand there
are those that like ample screen sizes, despite the accompanying girth. Pearl aside, this
camp includes BlackBerry owners, other full-QWERTY devices, and the iPhone. In
the other corner are those candy-bar, flip-phone aficionados who laugh
deridingly at the largesse of those ‘other’ cell phones. Pros and cons abound. So
it comes as little surprise that the manufacturer of one of the most popular
and ubiquitous cell phones, Apple, would be looking to appeal to the minimalist
camp. And according to a report published by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News the iPhone Nano may
be coming sooner rather than later.
The Economic
Daily News is reporting that the bidding war over the components for the
rumoured device are nearing completion. The intel, ostensibly made available
via an inside source within Taiwanese supply chain leading back to Apple, states
that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United
Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) are likely to land the contracts for the
iPhone redux (the former you may recall form the infamous trials and
tribulations of the Xbox 360).
The article then speculates that the orders
may get the go-ahead from Cupertino as early as March. It was in June, you may recall, at the Worldwide
Developers Conference Apple officially detailed both the iPhone and the iPhone
3G.
And while Apple has made great strides to make
the iPhone a household name, many a financial expert has supposed that a more
affordable version of the phone would make leaps and bounds towards a more
substantial market share. A logical premise given the current state of the
economy. FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger has even gone so far to claim
that the iPhone Nano would will fulfill that niche and that they expect the
low-cost handset from Apple as early as the middle of the second quarter.
Out of all this, there is one thing you can
be sure of; a whole new line up of miniaturized iPhone accessories. And you
also know where you can get the skinny on those new accessories.
