Apple may be preparing to assault the prepaid side of Android with a contract-free iPhone of its own.
According to Boy Genius Report, an anonymous source says Apple plans to launch a prepaid, contractless version of the iPhone 3GS for just $350. BGR also reports that a newer model of the iPhone will be coming out or “at least announced by the end of summer, late August-ish,” and that Apple will continue to sell the iPhone 4 alongside the newer model (likely dubbed the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5).
This is no real surprise–in the past, Apple has sold previous-generation iPhones at a reduced price alongside the latest models. This year, however, Apple may reach back two generations and continue selling the iPhone 3GS as a cheap, prepaid alternative–giving Apple the full range of devices, as BGR points out: high- (new iPhone), mid- (iPhone 4), and low-end (iPhone 3GS).
A South Korean lawyer who is an avid user of the iPhone is waging a legal privacy battle against Apple (AAPL) over the device’s tracking capabilities. Kim Hyeong-seok said Friday that he has gotten at least 16,000 people in South Korea to join him in a class-action lawsuit he plans to file against the Cupertino company in a Seoul court in early August. His complaint was that the iPhone’s tracking of users’ locations violates South Korea’s constitutional right to privacy and caused him “mental stress.” That hasn’t stopped him from continuing to use his iPhone 4 as well as an iPad. “I like Apple,” Kim said in a phone interview. But he adds that his legal fight is about “right or wrong.” An Apple spokesman in Seoul declined to comment.
– Associated Press