UPDATE: JP Morgan retracts Kevin Chang’s prediction of iPhone Nano
Now that they can't drop cryptic hints about the iPhone's existence, analysts are moving on to the next predicted phase in Apple's master plan: a nano-based cellphone. Kevin Chang, an analyst with JP Morgan, has quoted anonymous sources in the Apple hardware supply chain as well as pointing to recently-revealed patents for iPod-like devices with multiple functions and a touch-sensitive scrollwheel.
"We believe that iPod Nano will be converted into a phone because it's probably the only way for Apple to launch a lower end phone without severely cannibalizing iPod Nano" Kevin Chang
He's not the only one expecting big things; rival firm Piper Jaffray pushed analyst Gene Munster blinking into the light to clue us in on their expectation of a touchscreen-based iPod, media-dedicated unlike the iPhone, which would go some way to prevent the cellphone eating into PMP sales.
"iPods with some of the touchscreen features of the iPhone should lessen the impact of cannibalization" Gene Munster
While Apple so far has refused to comment on either suggestion, opinion seems to be growing that an iPhone nano - priced at $300 or lower and with "rather limited functionality" - would allow the company to hit sales of 30 to 40 million units in 2008. Chang also fingered Taiwan's Catcher Technology as "major source of metal casing" for the new handset, although he refused to reveal his sources.
[via Reuters]
