Rumor: iPhone Nano Will Be Totally Cloud-Based

Rumors regarding the mysterious “iPhone Nano” have been surfacing everywhere lately. Speculation started gaining some traction last week, with a report from Bloomberg saying that Apple has been working on a smaller and cheaper version of the iPhone.

The Wall Street Journal recently corroborated and added some details to Bloomberg’s report. According to the WSJ, the “iPhone Nano” will be considerably smaller than the current iPhone and heavily rely on Apple’s MobileMe service.

More rumors have emerged regarding the iPhone Nano…

Cult of Mac reports from an “inside source,”

“Firstly, according to our source (who asked to remain anonymous), Apple has been working on a smaller, mass-market iPhone for a long time. But to do that, Apple had to figure out a way to strip away some of the components to reduce both its size and cost.

Apple decided to lose some of the memory, which is by far the most expensive component of the iPhone. By “some” of the memory, we mean ALL of the memory. The iPhone nano will have no memory for onboard storage of media, our source says. It will have only enough memory to buffer media streamed from the cloud.

“I’m talking strictly storage memory here,” said our source.”

A totally cloud-based iOS is not hard to imagine. Especially considering Apple’s purchase of the Lala.com streaming company. Apple could be waiting for this summer’s WWDC conference to introduce a cloud-based iTunes that words in tandem with MobileMe.

Cult of Mac also had something to say about MobileMe,

“The iPhone nano will pull ALL it’s content from MobileMe. When users buy a movie or TV show on iTunes, it’s available to stream to their iPhone or iPad. The service is based on technology from LaLa.com, a streaming service that Apple bought last spring and then shut down.

“It would be a mostly cloud-based iOS,” said our source.”

If MobileMe does become the backbone of iOS on the iPhone Nano, it would be difficult to imagine that Apple would keep MobileMe at the price it currently costs. Rumors of a free MobileMe have been circulating for quite some time, and perhaps Apple will finally make its cloud-based sync and email service free this summer.

If the iPhone Nano does in fact have no memory storage, pictures and video taken with the camera would have to be auto-uploaded to the cloud immediately. AT&T and Verizon should be shaking in their boots at the prospect of that.

What do you think about a completely cloud-based, smaller version of the iPhone? I doubt Apple would discontinue the regular version of the iPhone, but a smaller and cheaper iPhone “Nano” could help Apple further saturate the mobile market.

[via Cult of Mac]