Apple to return to vertical, tall iPod nano design, add home button?
Macotakara claims that Apple is gearing up to launch a redesigned iPod nano later this year. This new iPod nano will return to the device's old horizontal design, but will be 3/4 the height of the fifth-generation of the music player, according to the report.
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPod nano has been through a rapid form-factor churn: 2010's smaller click-wheel-free redesign became the square sixth-generation unit that kept the 30-pin dock connector, and 2011 brought conflicting signals — an April report that the nano would add a camera while keeping its current shape, followed by a May photo of an alleged seventh-generation unit with a 1.3MP camera and no clip.
Macotakara's claim of a return to a tall, vertical body at three-quarters the fifth-generation's height — with a home button — would reverse the square design outright rather than iterate on it. The pickup by AppleInsider, Computerworld, Gotta Be Mobile and everythingiCafe shows how much attention even a rumor-level nano redesign draws ahead of Apple's usual fall iPod refresh window.
First-order effects
- If the redesign ships this fall, accessory makers who built cases, clips and watch-style bands around the square sixth-generation nano face an immediate obsolescence cycle for their entire current nano lineup.
- Apple's fall media-event lineup gains a visibly changed product, giving the aging iPod line a headline item alongside the annual iPod touch and shuffle updates.
Second-order effects
- Adding a home button would pull the nano's interaction model into line with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, narrowing the control-scheme gap between the nano and iOS devices and sharpening the question of what distinct role the nano plays in Apple's lineup.
- Rumors of a smaller 7-inch iPad circulating the same week put two Apple form-factor stories in play at once, letting commentators frame the nano's shrinking-and-growing cycles against Apple's broader sizing experiments.
Third-order effects
- A third major redesign in three years would confirm the nano's role as Apple's low-risk hardware testbed, where input methods and proportions are tried before they inform higher-stakes products.
- Continued convergence toward iOS-style controls points to a future where the dedicated media player survives only as a niche fitness-and-wearables device rather than a mainstream music category.
The trend: Apple is treating the iPod nano as an annual form-factor experiment, cycling its size and controls each year as the device drifts from music player toward wearable-adjacent hardware.