iPhone 3G EOL; 3GS price cuts inevitable
Reader Alex Thompson was surprised that Apple didn't announce the End-Of-Life (OEL) of the 8GB iPhone 3G at the iPhone OS 4 event. After all, Apple confirmed that the iPhone 3G won't support multitasking in iPhone OS 4, so should they stop selling it?
The answer of course, is no. Apple wants to sell as many iPhones as possible at full retail price (plus commissions from AT&T, natch) before the new iron comes out and completely freezes the market.
The conventional wisdom is that Apple will announce a $100 cut in the iPhone 3GS pricing (drop the 16GB to $99 & the 32GB to $199) in order to prime sales until the iPhone HD phone goes on sale in June. The logic being that Apple's component pricing should be better nine months in.
Although there is some precedent, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone 3G to $99 (with contract) when the iPhone 3GS was announced, it will probably wait drop the price of the iPhone 3GS until the iPhone HD (or whatever it's called) is announced. I'm betting on WWDC 2010, currently rumored to run June 28 - July 2, 2010.