Apple is planning to axe the iPhone 3GS, and make the iPhone 4 the company's entry-level smartphone, retail sources tell The Telegraph. It's expected that the phone will probably be given away free on contract. The sources add that an 8GB version of the iPhone 4S could be launched, and that the iPhone 5 will come in three different storage capacities like its predecessor, shipping on the week of September 21st.
The arrangement would continue Apple's existing tiered iPhone strategy. Until it began keeping older iPhones on sale, a long-running criticism from analysts was the lack of a model the average person could afford. Apple still faces some complaints that the cheaper phones it does offer are just older products, bound to go obsolete faster and miss out on feature advancements.
