Analyst envisions ‘iPhone Nano’ and ‘iPhone Touch’

“Arguing that the market for standalone portable media players is certain to decline as consumers upgrade to multimedia smartphones, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi says it would behoove Apple (AAPL) to migrate its vast iPod user base to the iPhone. But to do this successfully Apple needs a mainstream device–one free of the required $70+ a month voice-and-data service plan, which for some, is prohibitively expensive,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.

“Sacconaghi envisions two versions–the iPhone Nano and the iPhone Touch. The former would be a physically smaller device without the larger multitouch screen of its predecessor. It would not support Web browsing or run third-party applications. Think of it as an iPod Nano with an onboard cellular radio for phone calls,” Paczkowski reports. “The latter, the iPhone Touch, would essentially be an iPod touch capable of making phone calls. It would not require a wireless data service plan and would access the Internet via WiFi, just as the iPod touch does.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: And, to think, Steve Jobs has so far ignored the talents of Wall Street analysts, who, from what we can see, are not required, nor do they hold absolutely any formal accreditation whatsoever for their own day jobs, much less for product conceptualization, design, and strategy.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]