



Crazy Steve says, "We've got ten million iPhones to sell in 2008—no price is too low!"



Citing unnamed sources, the Financial Times has a report that validates what many have thought of as one of the few flaws in the greatest communication tool ever created by Steve Jobs.

The new version of the Apple iPhone is set to be sold at significantly lower prices than the existing one, in a tacit acknowledgement by the US technology company that its previous sales strategy was not sustainable.

Supposedly, Apple "bowed to pressure from mobile phone operators" in the US and Europe, and more directly, from consumers who apparently will only pay so much for a phone. After going on sale last June at $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB models, two months later, Apple dropped the price to $399 for a single 8GB model. More recently, UK resellers O2 and Carphone Warehouse discounted iPhones by £100. Both these actions may have been in response to sales figures that were not in keeping with Apple's projections, the most notable being 10 million iPhones sold in 2008.

To that end, AppleInsider has the comments of RBC analyst Mike Abramsky. Abramsky suggests that an "entry iPhone model or an unusually low price for the near-certain 3G model could accelerate Apple's sales growth between 50 to 100 percent." That would be 20 to 25 million units in 2008, double that in 2009. If this sounds like iRational exuberance upon the part of the analyst, consider the iPod. Appropriately priced and without draconian restrictions, the media player has dominated the market. By bending on subsidies and, hopefully, revenue sharing, Apple may be able to sell the iPhone everywhere the iPod is sold with similar results.