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Some kind of iPhone may go on sale at WWDC!

By: , IntoMobile
Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Calm down, this is just a mockup

Calm down, this is just a mockup

Tomorrow might be all about the Palm Pre, but Apple’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’s 41% share and BlackBerry 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]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Josh – UniquePhones

    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?

  • Chris

    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.