iPhone Nano: is it a joke?

Whispers of Apple’s new prospective product, the iPhone Nano, are fast circulating the web worlds, and Apple’s existing customers are quite surprised by a few of the images of the new product. The iPhone Nano seems to be a scaled down version of its larger predecessor – and literally that. Smaller screen, smaller hold (which could also effectively downsize the experience of having an iPhone in your hand), smaller buttons, smaller everything. The rumor set off after two Taiwanese companies (TSMC, UMC) were set to export chipsets for the phone; also, XSKN, the official case-maker for the iPhone, has been believed to be manufacturing a protective counterpart for the Nano. In the wake of this surprise, Apple has officially quashed the information as false.

DigiTimes has reported that the earliest possible release of the Nano will be in June of this year. Here are some images of the phone; I, for one, don’t know if they’re real or doctored. The phone is a tad too small to be anything more than a pager. But then, given that it’s Apple, anything is possible. Only time will tell. 

Being The Tata Nano

Ratan Tata’s new calling card, the Tata Nano, has been unveiled in India. The car is purported to be the world’s cheapest, and also promises to be one of the most fuel efficient in its category (if the category does exist). Here are what I think some advantages and disadvantages of being the Nano.

Advantages

1. Small size: Thanks to the compact design and exquisute space ergonomics, the car could very well be the first truly possible solution to India’s traffic congestion problems in its tens of cities.
2. Fuel economics: By cutting down on everything from aluminium sheet metal for the shell to the size of the engine, the Nano is a light piece of marvellous atomotive engineering with a fuel consumption to rival any other vehicle that promises the same things.
3. For the family: India’s burgeoning middle class can now afford to own their own car. Considering that Tata had gone into a compromisation spree while developing the car, Ratan Tata had a full-scale crash test performed to prove that none of the 500 engineers working on the car had cut down on safety measures. The Nano is a family car!

Disadvantages

1. Affordability: Just as much as being a solution to the traffic problems is an advantage, the overwhelming affordability that the image of the car projects could very well defeat it by the sheer number of Nanos on the road. Maybe Tata will come up with a smaller car.
2. The Green Scene: As with the affordability, environmentalists are concerned about the comparison made between the Nano’s fuel consumption and the number of Nanos on the streets. Again, sheer numbers.

 

Tata Nano (measuring a little less than 5m long)

 

Who ever thought the manufacturer of cutting edge four-wheeled monstrosities in India could come up with such a smug solution for the passenger? I don’t think anyone did. Well, now, with Tata more than dominating the Indian automobile scenario (as well as the global markets with its bids for Jaguar and Land Rover), what happens to the others? And with so much hype being generated for single car, the time is not far when someone is bound to find something wrong with the it. Only time will tell.