Some kind of iPhone may go on sale at WWDC!
By Will Park on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 3:20 PM PST In Apple, Rumors, iPhone, iPhone OS
Calm down, this is just a mockup
Tomorrow might be all about the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, but Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s WWDC 2009 may be the talk of the town when it kicks off on Monday, June 8. The latest rumblings from the rumor mill has Apple one-upping the WebOS-powered Pre with a cheaper iPhone going on sale as soon as Monday. The Financial Times reports that “people familiar with the initiative” have shed light on Apple’s plans to announce a lower-priced iPhone, with units available for sale the same day!
The cheaper iPhone, according to analysts, might come in at a price-point $50 to $100 cheaper than the current iPhone’s $199 price (with new contract, of course). That would make for a $149, or even a $99, iPhone going on sale during WWDC 2009. A cheaper iPhone “Nano” might be just be the surprise that Steve Jobs is rumored to be announcing during the WWDC keynote.
The move to offer a bargain iPhone model could be a potential boon for Apple. The iPhone maker claims just 11% of the world’s smartphone shipments, which is just a fraction of Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s 41% share and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) maker RIM’s 20% share. A super affordable iPhone might attract an entirely new demographic to Apple’s iconic smartphone platform.
If Apple does indeed one-two punch the mobile world with an iPhone announcement and sales-launch at WWDC 2009, Palm could see their hype-heavy Palm Pre sharing the limelight with Apple’s new wares. This should be fun to watch…
[Via: FT]
I understand that there’s a market for cheaper smart phones, but is there really a market for smaller iPhones? Is it too big for many people?
Can I make my bet about the new keynote?
1) No, new iPohone- An’t gonna see one cause apple will want to just keep this one for maybe for two weeks.
2) A new camera- it would be called quicktake pro and would be an upgrade from the ones they made in 1992. It would be slr like, have a 8mp camera, have the power to send photo to mobile me, facbook, myyspace, twitter, and all blog sites. Wifi, a app store just for photo.
3) Minor upgrades to iLife or iWork-some bug fixes
4) 3.0 OS-Will come out that day.