If the rumors of a cheaper iPhone are true, then it's not the first time that Apple developed a more affordable variant of its popular product to better reach out to the general market. Shaw Wu of American Technology Research believes that Apple will react favorably to the market pressure brought about by the immense popularity of the iPhone.

"Apple needs to round out its iPhone product line at lower price points," he said, "if it expects to replicate the success of its iPod with sales of 100 million units." It's not really rocket science, but hearing it said by a professional in the field makes us feel a bit more positive about the likelihood of seeing inexpensive iPhones.

Wu also mentions that there will be "lower cost iPhone prototypes for release at unspecified future dates," according to his sources in the market. He goes on to give another reason why the iPhone will be a hit with the general market:

We believe one overlooked advantage iPhone may have over other smartphones is that when making calls, its virtual dialer has no extra clutter, and it is likely easier to dial unprogrammed phone numbers than on fixed QWERTY keyboards.

That's all good, if the rumored affordable iPhones will even have the touchscreen feature.