The United States Patent & Trademark Office today granted several Apple patents, including the one dating back to 2006, reports Patently Apple. Is this a miniaturized version of the iPhone the rumor-mill has been blabbering about ever since the original iPhone came out? According to the publication:
That last patent isn't about a specific phone design in the least and yet it may illustrate that an iPhone-nano like design was very much on the minds of Apple's engineers back in 2006. Is that idea now scrapped being that iPhone subsidies allow older models of full size iPhones to sell for only $99 – or is it a concept that's still on Apple's roadmap? Time will tell.
Apple's team in France added the above graphics depicting the device. Don't hold your breath for this one as Apple, just like any other company, often patents stuff that never gets to see the light of the day. This patent win only tells us that an iPhone-nano like design was on the minds of Apple's engineers five years ago, before the original iPhone even came out. Also…
We have to consider that the iPhone nano with a physical keyboard doesn't really stand a chance in today's all-touch world, especially next to the free iPhone 3GS or the $99 8GB iPhone 4. Such a device also wouldn't be Apple-like unless the company was looking to address the most price-sensitive segment of the market and developing regions where Nokia's plasticky handsets are all the rage. Other patent wins from today include the iPod nano's housing and display module, a new multi-touch related patent concerning the iPad's in-plane switching display and one for the iPad dock.
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