iPhone Nano Coming in June, But Not to United States?

DigiTimes highlights a report from Taiwan's Economic Daily News stating that two chip manufacturers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and United Microelectronics Corporation, are expected to receive chip orders for Apple's rumored iPhone nano. The report states that orders would likely come in March, leading to a June release of the iPhone nano at the earliest.

Meanwhile, American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshall believes that the iPhone nano will not initially be launched in the United States. According to Marshall, wireless industry insiders have confirmed that the device is not yet being tested by AT&T, suggesting that US customers will face an indefinite wait for the new device. Marshall also speculates that China may be an ideal market for the iPhone nano's initial release.

"Obviously, the best-case scenario here would be a China launch (~600mil+ wireless subscribers total in the country), but we have no definitive knowledge of this and are working on identifying the local of launch and other pertinent details," he said.

The rumored iPhone nano has been the subject of considerable discussion since mid-December, when iDealsChina published details of the device based on a silicone skin produced by case manufacturer XSKN. Vaja quickly followed suit by adding an entry for "iPhone nano" to their list of case offerings. While these developments led to speculation that the iPhone nano would be released at last week's Macworld Expo, some analysts tempered expectations with information that, while the device is on the way, it would not be ready for a Macworld introduction.