Apple is expected to debut a lower-cost iPhone in the middle of next year, according to an industry analyst, as the company switches to a different maker of mobile chips.
“Our contacts see a lower-cost version of the iPhone,’ Friedman Billings Ramsey &Co. analyst Craig Berger wrote in a report. “Some call this device the ‘iPhone Nano’; whatever one calls it, we believe this device is on its way.
Analyst speculation in the past has forecast that such a phone would be a pared-down version sans data plan, sporting only phone features and an iPod.
Cupertino, California-based Apple has tapped chipmaker Qualcomm to replace Infineon Technologies to supply its baseband chip, a processor that some experts have blamed for problems with the phone’s 3G connectivity.
Shares of Qualcomm edged upward $1, or 3 percent, at $35.94 in midday trading. Apple shares dipped $0.94, or 1 percent, at $85.35.
Apple shares have sliced off more than 50 percent of their value in 2008 as markets have tanked and concerns over the health of CEO Steve Jobs have persisted
Apple is also expected to release new iPod Shuffles and cheaper Macbook notebooks, according to the analyst.
“We do not believe this PC will qualify as a netbook,” he wrote, referring to the invasion of a sub-$500 category of ultra-light notebooks from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, and Lenovo.
The Friedman Billings analyst expects Apple could sell as many as 10 million iPhones in the fourth quarter through its stores, retail partners, and carrier stores.