[Doxxic]

I hope that somewhere before 2010 we see some iPhone nano.

Because I love the iPhone user interface and it's seemless operation with the Mac, but it's too expensive for me and has way to many things I just don't need.


I don't need to always have access to the web with my phone. I don't need Google Earth and I don't want my email in my phone wherever I am. But suppose that phone companies aren't willing to sell a phone relying less on data traffic.
And I could also easily live without the video player functions and I don't care much for camera capabilities on my phone, either. But I suppose Apple wants a certain margin on their phones, and needs to justify their price.
And I don't want a 2 yr contract anyway, with any operator.

What do you think?
Will we see a simple, affordable, beautiful iPhone costing € 150 unlocked before 2010?
What functionality would you guess it would have?

[dmegatool]

Originally Posted by Doxxic I don't need to always have access to the web with my phone. I don't need Google Earth and I don't want my email in my phone wherever I am. But suppose that phone companies aren't willing to sell a phone relying less on data traffic. And I could also easily live without the video player functions and I don't care much for camera capabilities on my phone, either. But I suppose Apple wants a certain margin on their phones, and needs to justify their price. And I don't want a 2 yr contract anyway, with any operator.

You want nothing or what ? ...You forgot to mention that you don't want iPhone.

Joke aside you just want a phone that sync your contact with your mac... is that it ?

[Doxxic]

+ it syncs my agenda, + it is an iPod similar to nano, + it has a touchscreen interface much like the iPhone.

+ it's affordable.

Yes.

It's not such a strange thing to say, is it?
Not stranger than it would have been 2 years ago if someone said that he wants his iPod with less memory, without a screen and able to clip on his belt, for less than 100 dollars. If you know what I mean.

I hope Apple's iPhone strategy is similar to Apple's iPod strategy and I wonder what the cheaper iPhones might look like in some years.

[Robo]

Before we saw the iPhone, I had predicted that we'd see an iPhone nano sharing the case dimensions of the current iPod nano, which would (barely) make it the thinnest phone in the world. It seems clear, however, that Apple had much more in mind for their phone than merely adding a phone to an iPod.

[Doxxic]

I read it, but now that I've seen the iPhone, I don't think we'll ever see a trimmed iPhone like that.
I've become convinced that people want to input text in their iPhone, however cheap it is.

I'd expect MultiTouch to be a defining iPhone component, although I once thought that the clickwheel defined the iPod, as well...

G

[iDaver]

A Cingular executive with loose lips quoted at CES seemed to imply that we'll be seeing other phones from Apple soon, which will also be tied to Cingular service. Link

I would hope for a cheaper "lite" version of the iPhone as well. I'd prefer a device that is mostly iPod, which is also a phone. I'm not a real phone person though. I use my cell phone just a few times a week.

[Dovek916]

the thing is, if you make the iPhone any cheaper, you will end up driving people away from the 80 gig iPod. It the 80 gig is $350, and the iPhone is $400, it would only make sense to buy the iPod if you had that much music. Then you might say, make the iPods cheaper, say 512 shuffle @ $50 1 gig shuffle @ $75 1 gig nano @ $100 2 gig nano @ $150 and so on and so forth, but then apple would come down in prices and that doesn't happen

[iDaver]

Originally Posted by dovek916 the thing is, if you make the iPhone any cheaper, you will end up driving people away from the 80 gig iPod. It the 80 gig is $350, and the iPhone is $400, it would only make sense to buy the iPod if you had that much music.

It depends on what you want, I guess. I own a hard disk iPod and recently got a nano. I find myself using the nano much more often because it's so small and light. (I don't feel the need to have all of my music with me like some people do.) So drop most of the features from the iPhone, make it a nice flash iPod that also makes calls for about $299 and I'm sold. I wouldn't even be comparing it to a hard disk iPod because that's not what I need/want.

[Doxxic]

I agree with iDaver that if you buy a 80GB iPod, you buy it for the video, which should need so much harddrive space (otherwise we'd also see video iPods with way less harddrive space, I suppose).

That's why to me it seems like the iPhone rather competes with the $199 nano. Which happens to be pretty much what Steve Jobs said when he explained the iPhone's price.

This would imply that at this moment, the iPod's characteristic screen size should be seen rather as a phone/safari/mail feature than an iPod feature, since so little video can be stored.

So what we might see later on is high end iPhones priced like current iPhones, with more harddrive space, thus really made for video watching as well.

But I doubt if what we'll see in the low end will actually ever be much less than the current iPhone.
I only see two areas where Apple could give in, but both aren't very probable.
- I think phone companies will *only* sell the iPhone if it keeps tempting the user to use it's data features
- I think Apple will not make the screen smaller, since they'll want to keep the MultiTouch experience as spotless as possible.

So what I'd expect is that in, say, 3 years, a (smaller? flatter?) iPhone with features like the current, but with 3G compatibility, a better camera and updated software of course, will be sold as the "light"/"nano" version, for, say, $200 with a 2 yr contract.

Anyway, it becomes clearer and clearer to me how the iPhone's main strength must be how incredibly easy it's going to be for Apple to adapt their phone to changing markets & available technologies...

[Baron Munchausen]

I think Cingular will get greedy and Apple will desert them.

As for iPhone, the costly bit is the screen AFAICT.

GPS will get better but the problem is the patch antenna. Mast triangulation is limited to about 100m at the moment.

[Souflay123]

An idea for a iPhone Nano is really stupid. What makes the iPhone special is that it does everything, it converts from being a phone to a media player to a internet device. if you dont want any of that stuff but you want just to have your address book, and a kinda media player with a touch screen, get a damn treo or a blackberry (go for the blackberry pearl). the advantage about the iphone is that it will do everything, and i would not worry too much about the price. if the plan is not too much you end up ahead in the end.

[iDaver]

Um, well, what if you want to play your iTunes purchased music on your treo or blackberry?

What's being suggested, I think, is an iPod with phone capability that doesn't have all the "everything" that most people don't need in their iPods or phones; and costs less money.

[thegelding]

i'm the opposite...i'm waiting for the iPhone without the phone or camera...but leave everything else...it's the newton, but better

g

[iDaver]

Originally Posted by thegelding i'm the opposite...i'm waiting for the iPhone without the phone or camera...but leave everything else...it's the newton, but better

Understandable, however I think there's a much bigger market for phones than for PDAs. I think that's why Apple is going for the phone market after abondoning the Newton.

[Boomerangmacuser]

I still believe that although video takes more memory minute-for-minute than music, a video device needs LESS memory than a music device. You keep music on your player and listen to it time and time again, but you watch a movie once and then ditch it. A couple of movies is enough for the college/commuter/airline crowd.

I can see a Nano phone that just plays music but I can't phathom a PDA that can't communicate via cellular. Even the music phone will have to at least have text messaging capabilities. How will that work with the nano's dimensions?

[Doxxic]

Originally Posted by Boomerangmacuser I can see a Nano phone that just plays music but I can't phathom a PDA that can't communicate via cellular. Even the music phone will have to at least have text messaging capabilities. How will that work with the nano's dimensions?

I actually agree. In terms of hardware, the iPhone is already pretty much a very basic phone and a basic iPod nano. The special thing about it is the MultiTouch interface, which defines the whole thing and shouldn't get any smaller than it is.

More and more I'm thinking that within a few years, the iPhone we've seen now will even be considered a very basic, stripped down version.