“We just received some new information from an incredibly solid source of ours,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR.
“According to our source, Apple will indeed be launching a prepaid / lower cost iPhone this year,” Geller reports. “We are told the handset will retail for no more than $350 without contract… It’s entirely possible that the low-cost iPhone will in fact be the iPhone 3GS.”
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Geller reports, “We reported that we were able to independently confirm that the iPhone 5 featured a radical new design, however this source of ours isn’t quite sure that will be the next iPhone. Whether it’s the iPhone 4S or 5, it will be coming out or ‘at least announced by the end of Summer, late August-ish.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
This is just more speculation ..
Tell us when the real news hits..
Methinks the rumor mill is now so ridiculous it’s no longer fun.
Making it the iPhone 3GS is so weak. It should be a new design if Apple really wants to start this party with a bang.
I would not expect Apple to continue manufacturing the 3GS too much longer. But I have been wrong many times in the past.
Seems a bit expensive for the 3GS. That cpu and display will be two generations behind and barely run iOS 5. I was hoping for a $250 3GS, $350 iPhone 4 and $500 for the iPhone 4S or whatever they are going to call it.
Remember, the current iPod touch has a much better display and better cpu than the 3GS and starts at $229.
Currently, iPhone 4 is sold for $650 as unlocked. I can’t possibly see how any new iPhones could cost less than that.
$350 sounds about right for a new unlocked 3GS, once iPhone 4 becomes last-year model (i.e. once the new one comes out in a few months).
Only one problem with this:
Apple already sells the iPhone 3GS without contract for $250.
How do I know? I bought an unlocked iPhone 4 a couple of weeks ago at my local Apple Store and they asked me if I would like an unlocked 3GS for $250 instead.
It’s not listed on the website, but I was offered one.
BS
Go to the Apple Store and ask in person. I was offered an iPhone 3GS in an Apple Store (Saddle Creek- Germantown, TN) by a store employee. Not refreshed, refurbed or other.
I payed full boat for the 4 as it wasn’t much more than the thieves at AT&T were asking for one as an upgrade ($499) with a 2 year contract, even though my current contract is up in December.
Sometimes stores carry unadvertised stock. Maybe AT&T & Verizon consented to the pricing on the condition of no promotion. No skin off my nose either way.
I have a hard time accepting the statement. AT&T is paying a $450 subsidy on iPhones to Apple. Even if 3GS were completely free with a new contract, the retail price would still be at least $400.
The only way a 3GS could possibly cost below that is if it were a customer-returned, refurbished model, sold with a limited 30-day warranty, and even then, it is unlikely Apple would discount it below $300.
All I can tell you is that they offered me one, it was new and the price was $250 Tennesse Sales Tax.
I have been served by this person before, it’s a busy store and she doesn’t bullshit customers. I have purchased over a dozen Macs at that store over the years, from Mac minis to Mac Pros. Thousands of $ of HW & SW at that store. Brought in dozens of switchers who bought at that store.
I purchased the 4 & she was probably trying to save me some $. She would have no motivation to BS me- nor would I.
All I can say is go to an Apple Store and ask in person.
Apple does not sell it the 3GS for $250 without a contract. It’s $400. I went to an Apple store and tried to buy one.
What I asked for was 16 GB. More storage might cost more.
Won’t happen.
1. The 3GS is aging and will soon be too old to respectably carry iOS 5 forward.
2. Apple won’t sell the iPhone 4 for $350.
3. The thought that Apple would release 2 separate new models to address different price points is laughably stupid.
There’s zero reason for Apple to release a cheaper non-contract phone. What are they addressing? Cheaper Android phones?
I have a 3GS & a 4 and see no substantive difference that one could attribute to CPU/GPU.
Actually it’s been too long Apple is launching a single model each year. Other product lines are quite divergent: 3 laptop models, 3 desktop models, and a bunch of ipod models. Why not with iPhone?
A cheaper contract-free iPhone would cover a vast swath of mobile market outside of the US, where unlocked phones are commonplace. I know very many women who have two or three different phones (various colours) and move their SIM card from one to the other, to match the phone to their outfit. Only in the US have I never seen this (yet), which makes US market not much of a space for unlocked, contract-free mobile phones.
I’m wondering how many of the unlocked iPhone 4 models sold on the US market (at $600) stay in the US; what percentage end up exported to EU, Asia, etc…
You are correct! I live in Asia, if there were iPhone variants that will be huge in Asia.
It will be the iPhone 4 before it will be the 3GS.
this is nonsense.
There is no market for an unlocked iPhone for US use- and price has been no barrier for international purchasers. So why do this? They already sell every phone they can make.
If they’re going to bother to make a “cheap iPhone”, it will be affordable. It will not be $350. A true push for market share, an “Android Killer” if you will, will need to be a hell of a lot more compellingly priced- but still a desirable phone.
Totally bogus. Have you ever seen Apple undercut their image by selling anything for free? One reason: premium products don’t come free, only Zunes and Androids do. Even the unfairly maligned “Fat Nano” or the Apple HiFi (AKA: concrete block) was never offered cheap as to do so would be to devalue the brand. Apple instead dumped their unsold product into charity channels.
At $350 iPhone (although less expensive than the current $449 price for a no-contract “as a gift” iPhone 3gs) is NOT a “low-priced” iPhone.
Also, continuing the current iPhone 3gs for another year means Apple has to support it for another three versions of iOS (assuming one version per year starting with upcoming iOS 5). That will be a drag on the iOS platform that Apple will avoid, because Apple will want to support only A4 with Retina Display or better as soon as possible.
Also, iPhone 4 is “too good” to be sold as the $49 “last years model” alternative.
Apple will do something else to surprise us… 🙂