Iphone Nano Just Release Now!

Hot off the heels of the talk that Apple is planning to release the iPad 2 in a few weeks — and then another new version of the iPad in the fall (something which we’ve heard from a very good source), here comes another one. Today, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is working on a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone. And here’s the thing. Once again, we’ve heard this as well.

Not to play second fiddle to Bloomberg’s story, but we’d previously heard from a source (different from the iPad one) that Apple was definitely at work on a device that could be thought of as an “iPhone nano”. We’d been trying to dig for more, but had yet to come up with anything substantial. But it looks as if Bloomberg has, in a similar vein.

So here are the details: Apple has been working on a way to sell a secondary, smaller version of the iPhone at a cheaper price. While they already offer a version of the iPhone that is cheaper than the standard $199 and $299 rates for new models, it has always been last-year’s model simply marked down more steeply, to $99 — and more recently, to $49 as a new iPhone model nears. So does Apple really want to go below $99 or even $49? Well, perhaps not.

The key is that the $99 price point is still carrier subsidized. What Apple apparently wants to do is release a version of the iPhone that is cheap without any subsidization. In other words: they want to sell an iPhone for under $200 without a contract.