Will Apple offer two handsets later this year, the iPhone 5 and an unknown option? So far, the answer to the question is yes, no, and both — and its only Wednesday.
Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets’ analyst Mike Abramsky told investors Apple is “expected” to make the three-year-old iPhone 3GS free with a two-year contract when the iPhone 5 launches later this year.
Earlier this week, another analyst said the Cupertino, Calif. firm would introduce an iPhone 4S, as well as the iPhone 5. That prediction was refuted by a Tuesday report that the tech giant would not introduce a second handset.
“While a $49 iPhone is already available (AT&T), psychologically a $0 iPhone provides a compelling offer,” Abramsky writes.
Data suggests 14 percent of people surveyed are “very/somewhat likely” to buy the free iPhone 3GS with a two-year contract – higher than the 13 percent interest for the iPad and the 9 percent interested in the first iPhone, according to the analyst.
A free iPhone 3GS could reach mid-market handset buyers, doubling Apple’s potential market to 150 million smartphones. Even a lower-priced $399 iPhone 3G that is unsubsidized would increase Apple’s share, Abramsky writes.
Abramsky also believes Apple will unveil a “baby” iPhone in 2012 that would make heavy use of iCloud services. Because the handset would not be released at the same time as the iPhone 5, the analyst doesn’t expect much cannibalization of the next-gen handset.
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.
