If recent rumours about the upcoming 3G iPhone are not enough, now market research firm Piper Jaffray is predicting that Apple will also soon offer up a lower priced iPhone model. By early 2009, Piper Jaffray expects that the iPhone will have grown into a family of three models. Essentially, the current iPhone would be bracketed by the 3G iPhone on the higher end and this new value iPhone on the lower end.
Piper Jaffray expects that the 3G iPhone will arrive in June and will then be followed by this new model that will cost between USD$200 and USD$300. Such a strategy would follow what Apple did with the iPod, first introducing one model and eventually growing it to what it is today (shuffle, nano, Classic, Touch, etc).
Combined with the expectation that Apple also plans to expand the number of countries where the iPhone is offered, Piper Jaffray expects that Apple could sell as many as 45 million iPhones in 2009. They see expansion into Canada, Mexico, Australia, Italy and Japan in 2008 with China, India and Spain possibly following in 2009.