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Analyst Revives Cheap iPhone Nano Rumors. Again

This story has taken on a life of its own. Yes, it's back again, the iPhone Nano scuttlebutt. This time, an RBC analyst says we'll see a $99 iPhone by summer.

Rather than make a smaller version of the iPhone, RBC Analyst Mark Abramsky says the cheaper iPhone will be made reality by deleting features.

I don't think that's the way to go.

In a note he issued this morning, Abramsky said the new, cheaper iPhone will have a camera with lower resolution, perhaps stepping down to 1 or 1.3 megapixels. It also would lose 3G (which makes it DOA, in my book) and lose GPS (also a deal breaker). Lastly, this cheaper iPhone would come with a cheaper data plan from whatever carrier chooses to sell it ($15 per month instead of $30). I won't argue that a cheaper data plan would make the iPhone more appealing, but I still find it unlikely.

On the flip side, Abramsky also believes the 3G iPhone will see some minor bumps in its feature list to set it further apart from the $99 iPhone. He suggests that it may have a better camera (please!) and/or video recording capabilities (pretty please!).

Will any of this happen? Who's to say. I think the iPhone in its current form needs some major improvements. I'd rather see Apple introduce a high-end iPhone and drop the price of the current hardware to the $99 price point. Perhaps it would make sense for Apple to offer the 8-GB version for $99 and the 16 GB for $199, rather than their $199 and $299 price points, respectively.

As always, Apple is (really) mum on the subject. Not a word from Cupertino.

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