Apple Applies for Patent for Simplified Mobile with Click Wheel

You might be looking at plans for the iPhone nano. Here’s a patent application by Apple, dated today, that shows a simplified input pad with numbers on it, and it could conceivably be a simple follow-on to the iPhone. The touchpad “displays graphical elements to indicate input areas of the touchpad,” and as you can see, it displays those symbols in a circular arrangement.

Not only is this evidence of a possible next generation of simplified Apple cellphones, it also indicates that Apple is probably not going to abandon the click wheel just yet. It all makes sense: Apple has a highly capable smart phone, but what about a basic cellphone, lower-priced and simplified, for the rest of us who just want to talk and don’t necessarily need to carry a $600 computer around with them 24/7?

Apple’s Patent Application [US Patent and Trademark Office, via Unwired View]