An October 2010 Steve Jobs email included as part of the evidence in Apple’s ongoing legal spat with Epic Games shows that the Cupertino firm had internal plans for an “iPhone nano,” which would have been a smaller version of the iPhone 4.
The email, first noticed in a trove of evidence by The Verge, was sent by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs to fellow executives in October of 2010, a few months after the release of the iPhone 4. In addition to the mention of the iPhone nano, the email includes Jobs saying he wanted Apple to find its identity, as well as Apple’s “Holy War with Google.”
However, Jobs’email, which laid out an agenda for a strategy meeting, doesn’t reveal much about the device. The email includes a bullet for an “iPhone nano plan,” a sub-bullet for its “cost goal,” and another sub-bullet indicating that “Jony” (likely Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive), would “show model (and/or renderings).”
Another section of the email refers to a “plus” version of the iPhone 4 with improved antennas, a point likely inspired by antennagate, improved performance, camera, and software. Apple did release an iPhone 4S that included all of that.
There were rumors back in 2011 that Apple had plans to release an “iPhone nano,” but the alleged device never appeared.