With more then half a million iPhones sold in the first few days after launch we know that it's a great device. It's a revolutionary phone, it's a full screen video iPod, it's an internet browsing device, it's an e-mail messaging device, it's a….. Well, it's a small computer that you can put in your pocket and do almost anything you want with it.
But what if you actually do not need all this stuff? What if you are overhelmed with all the available options? After all the success of the original iPod was based on it's simplicity. It did just one thing - made your whole music library portable. But it did it real well.
So what if a simple iPod with lots of storage is enough? And what if Apple just added a simple phone capability to it, so you don't have to carry two gadgets anywhere you go.
Yes. Nothing fancy or revolutionary. Just a simple iPod music player and a simple phone to make calls. Wouldn't that be a great device?
Apple thinks so too and may just have such a device soon in an iPhone Nano form factor, as it's recent patent filing called "Touch pad with symbols based mode" indicates.
It describes a simple touchpad that can display different symbols for different modes of the device and the ways to operate such a device. These different symbols are illuminated as different modes of the device are selected and are used to operate iPhone Nano in that mode.
And while the patent application talks about many great ways such a device might be used, the real drawings and examples boil down to a very simple thing. A portable device with just two functions - iPod music player and a simple phone.
I think Apple might be on to something here. While there is a huge market and a lots of happy potential iPhone users, the market for a cheap and simple device like iPhone Nano, that just makes calls, plays your music and does it really well, may be just as big.
Of course, if Apple introduced such a device before the iPhone, there would have been a huge outcry of dissapointment among Apple fans. But now, that Apple proved to the world at large that it can revolutionize the cellphone, it might just go and make the iPhone Nano phone/music player that your grandma will be comfortable with.
