Analysts foreseeing Apple introduce two iPhones at Tuesday’s event should get their eyes fixed. That’s the message from a Wall Street expert predicting the tech giant will unveil one new handset, but reduce prices on the iPhone 4 to $99 and the iPhone 3GS to free with carrier contract.
Apple will announce a new smartphone – either the “iPhone 5” or “iPhone 4S,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky writes Monday. Some observers suggested the Cupertino, Calif. company would announce the highly-awaited iPhone 5 along with an inexpensive handset perhaps destined for China.
Traditionally, when Apple unveils a new iPhone, it axes the second-year version. When the company unveiled the iPhone 4 in 2010, it cut the iPhone 3GS price first to $99, then later reduced the handset to $49 with contract.
Earlier this year, Abramsky said Apple would not release a low-cost iPhone unless it provided an “innovative, category-killer experience.” He sees converting the iPhone 3GS to free with contract both with consumers seeking an inexpensive iPhone experience while also rivaling Android’s growth in the low-price category.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
