interesting how sites have all the rumors but no announcement from apple yet!

@ Constable Odo:
Everyone else makes cheap phones, Odo. Apple simply has no reason to try to compete in that kind of market. Sure, they could make a better cheap phone, but it still wouldn’t be the iPhone experience they have already created.

I deeply believe, however, that Apple will introduce a line of two phones with markedly differentiated features to appeal to different markets, even if they are in similar form factors. A higher-end phone would lead the way in new features, including 3G and possibly GPS, and will maintain a higher-maximum amount of storage – say 32GB over the lower-end’s 16GB (or 16GB to 8GB). The lower-end phone would be similar to the iPhone we enjoy today and would not likely include 3G. Both phones would support all enterprise features introduced in the 2.0 update, and both would have matching or similar battery life ratings.

This is just what makes sense to me, based on how I perceive the way Apple thinks.

I do believe people should have some choice in models since all the other handset companies give users choices in models. One size does not fit all. However, I do not see how the current iPhone is too big and heavy. Has America really become the land of couch potatoes?

Well, the screen is arguably one of the “capabilities” of an iPhone. For example, you could run a web browser on a smaller screen, sure. But would it be worth using in anything other than a desperate emergency?

That’s the tricky part. Can Apple cram an iPhone experience into a smaller size? Consider the iPod–even without a visual interface (iPod shuffle), it still does what you want it to do: Play Music. Most people don’t “use” their iPods–they set them and forget them. Bring up the appropriate playlist and start listening.

But I think people actually use their iPhones. Web browsing requires a decent screen. We can, arguably, passively watch videos on an iPod nano screen. But actually trying to interact with the web? I don’t think so.

And with more applications coming for the iPhone, people will be using them for more and more things. But I certainly don’t want to track my expenses on a little tiny screen.

So the argument now becomes, “What do I lose from the lesser versions?” Imagine the proverbial “iPhone shuffle.” It makes phone calls and plays music. Personally, I wouldn’t run out and buy one because I’m not really gaining anything from my two separate devices: cheap cell phone and iPod.

Of course, this is just a rumor, just like the iPhone shuffle.