Email from 2010 shows that Steve Jobs considered producing an iPhone nano
Apple had high hopes for the iPhone 12 mini when the device was released last year. Sporting a 5.4-inch display, the device contains the powerful 5nm A14 Bionic chipset. But the handset's Achilles heel turned out to be the 2227mAh battery. Unless they are willing to carry around a power bank or dress the phone up in a battery case, iPhone 12 mini users spend their afternoons and evenings looking for an outlet to plug into.
At one time, Steve Jobs considered producing the iPhone nano
By the time June came around, Apple reportedly stopped production of the iPhone 12 mini. And supposedly, this year's expected iPhone 13 mini model will be the last of its kind. In 2022 we expect Apple to replace the mini with a non-Pro version of its largest model. In other words, we expect to see the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Email from Steve Jobs mentions an iPhone nano
That brings up the mini version of the iPhone is an email sent by the late Steve Jobs, co-founder, and former Apple CEO, discussing the agenda for a meeting that he planned on hosting. The email sent by Jobs in 2010 mentions a device called the iPhone nano. The "nano" name was being used at the time for a smaller, less advanced version of the iPod. Jobs' email was discovered while gathering evidence for the Epic vs. Apple trial and was viewed by The Verge.
The email written by Jobs had a bullet for the "iPhone nano plan" with sub-bullets for "cost goal" and a reminder that then Apple design chief Jony Ive would show those assembled the model (and/or renderings). There are also some bullets for Apple's 2011 strategy which included a "plus" iPhone 4 with a better antenna, processor, camera and software that would be offered to "stay ahead of the competition" until LTE support arrived in 2012.
Interestingly, while there was no iPhone 4 Plus, Apple did use the "Plus" name for the first time with the iPhone 6 Plus which was released in September 2014. Apparently, offering a premium "Plus" version of the iPhone was something that was on Jobs' mind back on October 24, 2010, the date that the email was sent.
The email also mentioned that Jobs wanted to create a low-priced iPhone based on the iPod touch to replace the iPhone 3GS. Whether this would be the iPhone nano model was not made clear. In the email, Steve also writes that he will present a couple of commercials from rivals with one being a spot for the Motorola Droid and the other an ad for a BlackBerry model.
At the time that Jobs typed this email, AT&T's iPhone exclusive was wrapping up
Jobs' missive also mentions Verizon's version of the iPhone as AT&T's exclusive with Apple was wrapping up and Verizon was less than four months away from releasing its first iPhone model. And the hardware for the iPhone 5 was already on Jobs' mind as he typed about a new antenna design and a new camera.
The iPhone 4 was first released for AT&T on June 24th, 2010 and almost immediately Antennagate became a household name. Touching the bottom left corner of the phone would lead to signal loss and calls would drop in seconds. Apple ended up shipping free rubber bumpers to iPhone 4 owners to prevent this issue from taking place. Eventually Jobs would blame iPhone users by saying that they were holding their handsets incorrectly.
A little less than a year after this email was disseminated, Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer and was replaced by Tim Cook. Shortly after the executive passed, Apple released the iPhone 4s which featured the debut of Siri. Jobs reportedly worked on aspects of the iPhone 6 series before he passed.
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