Report: Apple iPhone nano predictions now deemed dubious

It started Monday afternoon when Reuters picked up a report from a Taiwan-based analyst for JP Morgan named Kevin Chang. Chang had come across a patent Apple filed last November 1 for a phone with an iPod-like clickwheel, put it together with some information he had gleaned from unnamed sources in Apple's supply channel and issued a report to JP Morgan subscribers dated Sunday, July 8, predicting that Apple would release a low-cost, Nano-sized iPhone before the end of the year and might ultimately sell 30 to 40 million of them.

Several Apple blogs had picked up on the Apple patent when it was first published by the U.S. Patent Office last Thursday, including Gizmodo and the Unofficial Apple Weblog (tuaw.com). "Now this is interesting," wrote tuaw on July 5. "Could it be a low-cost sibling for the iPhone?"

But speculation on an Apple blog is one thing. A report issued by a JP Morgan analyst -- and retailed by Reuters -- is quite another.