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An iPhone Nano Before Christmas?

Looks like the hot rumor going around the Web is that Steve Jobs and company are planning a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone before the holiday season. Of course, this isn't the first time this idea has come up, but a report from the Daily Mail said this time it's real.

Naturally, the report relies on an unidentified "industry source," who said:

"The iPhone 3G has been the fastest-selling phone ever in the U.K, but it is too expensive to be a realistic proposition in the pay-as-you-go market."

"However, a cut-down version, with the candy bar shape of iPod nano music players, would be a huge hit as a Christmas gift."

The report goes on to say the device will be available on the O2 network, for about $234 on a pay-as-you-go plan. Additionally, the iPhone nano could have a touch wheel on the back of the display, and numbers would be punched in from behind.

Not so fast, says a post on Fortune, which points to analysis by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster and the fact that the Daily Mail is more known for celebrity gossip than megascoops in tech.

"Just as the company slowly diversified the iPod lineup and entered the lower price points with every new version, we expect Apple to launch new models of the iPhone at lower price points in calendar year 2009," Munster wrote in May.

The 2009 timeline makes the most sense to me, as I find it hard to believe that Apple would roll out another iPhone this close to the 3G's debut. Also, the iPhone is just making its entry into many new markets, and one hopes that they'll pay more attention to ensure those launches go smoothly.

There's no doubt that an even cheaper version would make the iPhone even more accessible to a mass market (especially if the new device wasn't exclusive to AT&T), and I firmly believe it will happen. But it just doesn't seem feasible for this year.

So, with that said, how many features could Apple phone drop from an iPhone nano and still make it desirable? I think less memory would be fine, but if the Web browsing experience is significantly degraded, or if GPS or the 3G chip were pulled, I don't know how popular it would be. What's your take?

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