Minis, the next big thing?

May 1st, 2009 | by Chris Speight |

With the release of the Instinct S30 and rumors of more low end versions of popular smartphones, are these “minis” destined for the big time and what do we have coming down the line? These are all rumors for the most part, but people definitely seem interested.

Why so much hype over these devices? Mostly because they are cheaper versions of more expensive phones, some could reasonably be free with a contract after the initial market grace periods, giving people a slightly less powerful version of mainstream devices at a much lower cost, which could be very beneficial in rough economic times.

The other is obviously, well, size. Most of these smartphone’s are becoming uncomfortably large, and a small bodied phone is great for people who don’t like to have belt clips or have an entire pocket dedicated to electronics. These phones may do very well to appeal to the crowd who is just dipping their toes into the smartphone market for the first time and want a good stepping stone between their old phones and higher tier phones, and companies like Apple would do very well to appeal to these people with their slick designs and marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, the only real mini phone yet to be released is the Instinct S30, which has definitely flown way under the radar apparently has not sold particularly well.

After the jump is some information about some potentially upcoming “minis”.

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iPhone Nano

The longest running iPhone mini rumor is the supposed iPhone Nano, the rumor of which has gone back and forth several times. The most recent official update came from CEO Tim Cook (Via BGR), “You know us, we’re not going to play in the low-end voice phone business. That’s not who we are. That’s not why we’re here. We’ll let somebody do that, our goal is not to be the unit share leader in the phone industry. It is to build the best phone.”

Oddly, this doesn’t seem to be a denial of such a device at all, only that such a device wouldn’t be low end and simple (IE: cheap). And considering rumors of multiple upcoming iPhone devices, the possibility of a smaller model iPhone seems fairly likely.

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Mini-Pre/Palm Pixie/Eos

This supposed device will be a full QWERTY device much like the pre, but a tad smaller and no slide out keyboard, and just like the pre, will sport the WebOS. It seems to be a mix between the old Centro line and the new Pre and come out a low price point to boot (and on AT&T). Engadget reported the following specs: