Register Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/10/apple_to_announce_iphone_and_ipod_touch_price_cuts/

Apple to announce iPhone and iPod Touch price cuts?

By Scott Snowden
Published Sunday 10th February 2008 18:34 GMT

Apple is planning to drop the prices of the iPhone and iPod line within the next month or two - perhaps at a rumoured late February announcement - a Mac enthusiast site has climed.

Website 9to5Mac received (http://www.9to5mac.com/ipod-iphone-price-drops-coming-soon-299-399-16GB-32GB-453677) word that the cuts are on their way. The reduction is said to be $100 off the price of models in both the iPod Touch and iPhone lines. The 8GB iPod Touch will apparently be dropped from the line-up just as the 4GB version of the iPhone was before it.

If true, this means that the 16GB iPhone (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/05/16gb_iphone_to_launch_in_uk_today/) will be $399 - the current price for the 8GB version and the 32GB iPod Touch will come in at $399 too. Speculation suggests that the price drops are in order to make way for "pricing space" for the 3G iPhone, expected this year.

Speculation for this announcement dates back to October last year, when Steve Jobs promised, via a post on the Apple website, that the company would release a software development kit for the iPhone (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/30/first_apple_iphone_review/) and iPod Touch (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/12/review_ipod_touch/).

"We plan to have an SDK in developers' hands in February," were the exact words as regards timescale, so rumours of an Apple event scheduled for late-February are not entirely surprising.

In addition to the price cuts and the expected software development kit, rumours abound that a Penryn-based MacBook Pros with multi-touch trackpad might also be announced.