iPhone nano

Guess what's back in the news. If you guessed a $99 iPhone then you just won the prize. Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets are predicting some changes in the Apple iPhone lineup this summer. However, the $99 iPhone predicted by Mike Abramsky doesn't resemble some of the earlier mockups of an iPhone "Nano" we've seen previously.

As you can see by the specifications above, the cheaper and highly subsidized version of the iPhone would have similar dimensions as its current model counterpart. The main differences would be lack of 3G or GPS support and a less expensive (and less included bandwidth) data plan. Along with the introduction of the basic model, Abramsky and others expect that Apple will also introduce an upgrade to the full-featured iPhone 3G.

Much speculation has surrounded the prospect of a smaller, simpler version of the iPhone dubbed the "nano" in recent months. Lately reports have centered on the possibility of an iPhone Nano in development for China, and the existence on some case maker's sites of "nano" size iPhone products.

These rumors were tamped down in October during Apple's quarterly conference call with Steve Jobs, when he laid out Apple's strategy in the mobile phone market. Jobs was quoted saying, "I think that the traditional game in the phone market has been to produce a voice phone in a hundred different varieties, but as software starts to become the differentiating technology of this product category, I think that people are going to find that a hundred variations presented to a software developer is not very enticing."