Samuel Axon
Final yr, the iPhone 12 mini flopped—a setback for lovers of small flagship telephones designed for one-handed use. However as anybody who has been following Apple for years is aware of, former CEO Steve Jobs was an advocate for small telephones. Now, because of an e mail written by Jobs in 2010, we all know that Apple was at one time engaged on an “iPhone nano.”
This yr, Epic Games and Apple have been locked in a authorized battle over the way forward for the iPhone’s app ecosystem. Throughout these authorized proceedings, a number of emails despatched inside Apple through the years have been made public. A lot of the press protection about these emails to this point has targeted on varied statements by Apple executives decrying sideloading, however all of us knew Apple leaders’ feelings about that topic already.
Now, although, we have realized one thing concerning the firm’s one-time product plans in an e mail first found and analyzed this week by The Verge. Jobs wrote and despatched the e-mail, which reveals an agenda for an govt assembly about Apple’s 2011 product plans, in 2010. Here is the related excerpt, with an specific reference to an iPhone nano on the finish:
3. iPhone – Joz & Bob
-2011 Technique:
– “plus” iPhone 4 with higher antenna, processor, digital camera & software program to remain forward of opponents till mid 2012
– have LTE model in mid-2012
– create low price iPhone mannequin primarily based on iPod contact to interchange 3GS– Enterprise & aggressive replace
– present Droid and RIM adverts
– Verizon iPhone
– schedule, advertising, …
– iPhone 5 {hardware}
– H4 efficiency
– new antenna design, and so forth
– new digital camera
– schedule
– iPhone nano plan
– price purpose
– present mannequin (and/or renderings) – Jony
Apple used the “nano” moniker for an ultra-small variant of the iPod, so these final bullets apparently counsel that the corporate was planning an iPhone even smaller than that yr’s flagship, the three.5-inch iPhone 4. (It is unclear whether or not the “low-cost iPhone mannequin primarily based on iPod contact to interchange 3GS” talked about earlier within the e mail is similar gadget because the iPhone nano.) The e-mail additionally appears to counsel that Apple design lead Jony Ive would present a mannequin or a render of the brand new gadget within the assembly.
There have been rumors within the press on the time a few potential iPhone nano, so this e mail appears to substantiate these rumors years later. Sadly, the e-mail would not embody any perception into the design or options of the gadget.
However the “nano” identify makes clear that the cellphone was anticipated to be smaller in some dimension or one other than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 was already minuscule by in the present day’s requirements, with Apple’s iPhone 12 Professional flagships now measuring in at 6.06 or 6.68 inches. Even the iPhone 12 mini—the iPhone nano of 2020, you would say—has a 5.42-inch display screen. It goes to indicate how a lot the smartphone panorama has shifted over the previous decade.
As we speak, there are dependable reviews that Apple plans to discontinue the poorly promoting iPhone 12 mini, although the lower-end iPhone SE (which relies on the design of the iPhone 8) is more likely to keep. The market has spoken: one-handed flagship smartphones are useless. We’re simply curious if the iPhone nano was canceled as a result of Jobs noticed the place the winds had been blowing.
