Apple to discontinue iPhone 3G after iPhone 4G announcement?

iphone3g

iphone3g

We reported just a scant few moments ago that analysts expect the iPhone 3GS to be reduced to $99 in the very near future. Most probably when the iPhone 4G / HD is announced officially at WWDC 2010.

We theorised that this may mean that the iPhone 3G will be phased out, and the low end iPod Touch with it too.

Boy Genius Report has just filed a report saying that it has heard that the iPhone 3G is no longer being shipped to AT&T stores in its 8GB configuration. And that orders for it are no longer being placed. Coincidentally this is also the amount of memory in the base iPod Touch model.

Both the iPhone 3G and the 8GB iPod Touch are not OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible, nor are they the most powerful devices in Apple’s iDevice portfolio. So not well suited to multi-tasking (in Apple’s opinion), a key part of iPhone OS 4.0.

I think its very easy to read into this that there will be sweeping changes to the current Apple iPhone and iPod touch lineup announced at WWDC. And we can expect iPhone 4G and new iPod touch to be more than 8GB and OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible by default. And to have more onboard RAM (like the iPhone 3GS) to deal with multitasking which will come on all new devices as part of iPhone OS 4.0.

I expect that the base model iPod touch will now be the 16GB model, which is more akin to the iPhone 3GS, and will therefore support multi-tasking better.

Apple is very obviously moving to consolidate its iDevice lineup for iPhone OS 4.0.

I also expect prices for the iPod touch 16GB will be the same as the price that the 8GB iPhone touch is currently. So perhaps hold off buying for a few days.

Will you be sad to see the iPhone 3G and the base iPod Touch model go? Or are you happy to have the opportunity to pick up a cheap iPhone 3GS, and better graphics and more RAM on all of Apple’s lineup? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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