Production of Apple's 30-month-old iPhone 3GS to hit 2 million units in Q4

Apple's manufacturing partners are expected to build 2 million iPhone 3GS handsets in the fourth quarter. Thursday of this week marked exactly two and a half years since Apple unveiled the iPhone 3GS during its Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2009. Citing industry sources within Apple's supply chain, DigiTimes on Friday reported that production of Apple's iPhone 3GS has continued at high volumes that should hit 2 million units in the December quarter. In the first quarter of 2012, production of the iPhone 3GS will reportedly slow to between 1.4 million and 1.6 million units. The same report also suggests that production of Apple's CDMA iPhone 4 could top 1 million units in the fourth quarter this year, slowing to between 500,000 and 600,000 units in the first quarter next year. In the United States, Apple's iPhone 3GS is available for free on contract from AT&T while the CDMA iPhone 4 is sold by both Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

‘Tremendous demand' for free iPhone 3GS, AT&T CEO says

During AT&T's third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, CEO Ralph de la Vega discussed the continued success his company still sees from the iPhone 3GS. ”We have another device that I think is going to dramatically change those people that are on smartphones and quick messaging devices, the 3GS, which is free with a 2-year contract,” de la Vega explained. “We've seen tremendous, tremendous demand for that device even though it's a generation old. And actually, we're getting more new subscribers coming on to the 3GS on the average than other devices. So we have an inventory sold out on that device.” Pretty impressive for a phone that made its debut in June, 2009. AT&T said it sold a total of 4.8 million smartphones during the third quarter, 2.7 million of which were iPhone activations. After the introduction of the iPhone 4S, Apple announced the 3GS was free with an AT&T contract and that the iPhone 4 would fall to $99 with a contract. 

All iPhone models (4S, 4 and 3GS) will be available at Best Buy

Best Buy has announced that it's going to sell "all models of Apple's iPhone." Needless to say, this includes the new iPhone 4S, which will be available at Best Buy with contracts from AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint (yes, T-Mobile is missing from the list, because Apple didn't consider the carrier is important enough to have an iPhone of its own).

The iPhone 4S can be already pre-ordered at Best Buy, and will be launched on October 14 (as you probably already know).

Prices (on contract) for the 4S will start at $199 for the 16GB edition, going up to $399 for the 64GB edition.

After the iPhone 4S is launched, the iPhone 4 8GB will be offered for $99 on contract, and the iPhone 3GS for free (also on contract - available only with AT&T service). Customers can check out all iPhone models here at Best Buy.

iPhone 3GS Is Now Free, iPhone 4 8GB Priced At $99!

The iPhone 4 will now be available for $99 on contract from AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Sprint will also be retailing the $99 iPhone 4. However, this model will only come in an 8GB variant in either black or white colors.

The older iPhone, iPhone 3GS is now available for absolutely no cost except the usual 2-year contract that you are bound to with the carrier. While iPhone 4 is one of the best selling phones in the United States, iPhone 3GS doesn't look too old for that deal.

Featuring a 3.5" capacitive multi-touch display on a 480×320 pixels display, the iPhone 3GS features a 3 megapixels camera capable of recording video at 30fps. It has 8GB of flash storage, runs iOS 4 and will be available only in black color.

The new iPhone out beats the iPhone 4 in terms of speed and processing power with a faster dual-core processor and up to 7x better graphics than iPhone 4. It also has an improved camera, and a whole lot of new features baked in iOS 5 which it will run out of the box.

Even as Apple did not actually launch a "cheaper iPhone" as many had presumed, the introduction of an 8GB iPhone 4 for $99 and a free iPhone 3GS contract will definitely help it expand its reach to even more diversity of consumers including the ones who've always wanted an iPhone but didn't get one considering it's "expensive" price tag.

Click here to know more.

Refurbished Apple iPhone 3GS now only $9 at AT&T

While we post many deals, sometimes several per day, they very, very rarely involve any Apple product. Regardless of why that may be, whenever an iPhone deal is available, it almost feels like it's something special. Today is one of those days.

AT&T is now selling refurbished iPhone 3GS smartphones for just $9 a piece. Now sure, the iPhone 3GS is getting old really fast, but if you simply can't afford the iPhone 4, this is a great deal. After all, you very, very rarely get to see any Apple product sell for $9. Even second-hand.

The usual caveats apply. A new two-year contract with the carrier is required. A minimum data service of $15 per month is also a must. And of course there's an additional caveat here – these are refurbished devices. So if for some reason you only want to buy brand new handsets, this clearly isn't for you. If however you have nothing against refurbs, or older iPhone models, then this is one deal you probably shouldn't miss.

If you're interested, head on over to AT&T and get yourself an iPhone 3GS.
source: Unwired View

iPhone 3GS to be the low end iPhone?

Apple never has to announce anything to stay in the spotlight of the news, and this latest rumor stems from an analyst at BMO Capital, Keitch Bachman. Apparently when the next generation iPhone arrives later this year, something interesting is going to happen: Apple will be discontinuing the iPhone 4. According to Bachman, the “low-end” iPhone that Apple will be keeping around is going to be the iPhone 3GS.

Is it because the next generation iPhone will look too much like the iPhone 4 that there's no point in keeping it around? Well until we've got final confirmation from Apple, we'll just take have to these rumors with a pinch of salt.
source: Ubergizmo