Apple Preparing Two iPhones For September?

The rumour mill is swirling. After hearing that an iPhone 5 or 4GS will only be ready for Christmas, we are now hearing that Apple may in fact be preparing two new iPhones – an iPhone 5 *and* a cheaper iPhone 4GS.

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore is reporting that “With Nokia and RIMM struggling, the time is right for Apple to aggressively penetrate the mid range smart-phone market (i.e. $300-500 category) to dramatically expand its [total addressable market] and market share.” Whitmore believes that an iPhone 4S priced at $349 would drive penetration into the mid-budget smartphone space increasingly dominated with Android phones taking marketshare from users upgrading from Nokia dumb-phones.

Whitmore makes some interesting points, but even at that price point Apple may well still be setting its prices too high – you can pick up a new unlocked iPhone 3GS on eBay right now for $399, and whilst it may not be the all singing iPhone 4, it does fulfil most tasks people expect of a smartphone with ease. If people wanted an iPhone for under $400 then they can have one already.

If Apple follow how they dominated all sectors of the MP3 player market previously – starting off with a single quite expensive device (the iPod) and then bringing out a much smaller more limited and half price iPod Nano – then we could be in store for an iPhone Nano in a few months. Apple could offer a 2.5″ display, an 800MHz processor, and keep avoiding any real multi-tasking as in the current iPhone 3GS. Such a small screen could results in impressive battery performance, and the price point could come down to a market beating $250. I may be disagreeing with the consensus here, but we’ve heard rumours of an iPhone Nano before, and if Apple do plan on dominating the low to mid-budget smartphone market – especially in emerging markets where there is huge potential growth – then an iPhone Nano may be the way to do so.