Is there an iPhone nano coming at Macworld?

First off, I want to point something out. it’s nano with a small ‘n’ not NANO or Nano or any other variation I’ve seen over the past month. Secondly, will we see such a device at Macworld?

It appears that the rumour sites are starting to get wind of a smaller/stripped down iPhone waiting in the wing and it begs the question, how do you make an iPhone nano?

Obviously, we have the iPod touch (note the lower case ‘t’ there too) which is effectively an iPhone without the phone, but what do you take from the iPhone to make it “nano”? 

The iPod: No way. You can’t swipe one of the most attractive features and, probably, the easiest to implement.

GPS: Surely not. It’s too important to too many App Store apps. Of course, the cell triangulation form of GPS works too so, perhaps, it could go…

3G: Not likely. The company recently accused of speeding up its adverts for iPhone surely wouldn’t slow down its mobile device, even for a slimline model. 

Size: Maybe. Do you really want a smaller screen? Something has to give if you strip down the form factor of the iPhone and it’ll mean a big sacrifice. Storage and battery are among the options with the latter perhaps being offset with the reduced power requirement of a downsized display. 

At the moment it seems like these rumours are being fuelled by iPhone case manufacturers who are slipping in spots on their sites for covers to fit the new device. It’s worth noting that, in most cases, not only do said manufacturers attempt to predict Apple releases in order to be ready for a launch, but a well timed site update also lures a sizeable wedge of web traffic.

So at the moment we’re pretty clueless but, as many have noted, the rumour sites are becoming more and more accurate and Apple is shying away from stopping the leaks. 

Could we have a shrunken iPhone on our hands soon? Jimmy Hayes will reveal the answers and more live from San Francisco in a few days time.