$100 Price Drop on iPhone and iPod Touch?

9to5Mac believes that the iPhone and iPod touch will be seeing $100 price drops in the next two months, simultaneously discontinuing the low capacity models.

Their belief is that the 8GB Touch and 8GB iPhone will be discontinued, leaving a 16GB iPhone at $399, 16GB Touch at $299, and 32GB Touch at $399.

The move would be reminiscent of the $200 iPhone price drop and discontinuation of the 4GB iPhone that took place in September, 2007. The surprise iPhone price drop -- only 3 months after the introduction of the iPhone -- caused an outcry amongst early adopters. The outcry was so great, that Steve Jobs posted an open letter to explain the decision and gave existing iPhone owners a $100 Apple store credit.

Based on this experience, it seems Apple would be reluctant to make a similar move when they could have easily timed the price drop to coincide with iPhone/Touch updates last week. This being said, the iPhone is still expected to receive further updates this year with the introduction of a 3G model in 2008. It's possible that any future price drops could correlate with the introduction of the 3G iPhone. AT&T has already committed to expand their 3G network to more U.S. cities in 2008.

While 9to5mac had an excellent early rumor record, their record has not been perfect, with their recent claims of 5 million iPhones sold by Macworld failing to come true.