iPhone 4S Not Coming This Year, Should We Expect Just the iPhone 5 This Fall?

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To be or not to be? This seems to be the question regarding the upcoming fifth-generation low-end iPhone. Some people say that Apple will launch two new iPhone models this year, a low- and a high-end iPhone, meant to address the needs of the current smartphone customer base. Others say Apple may not be interested in doing that. And, luckily for us, they’re all analysts.

As we already know, we can’t rely always on what analysts claim to know so we’ll always grab a huge chunk of salt when reading their reports. Yesterday we heard that Apple will announce two iPhones this year, the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5, each catered for a certain segment of the population. Thus Apple would be able to fight Google on multiple fields. Google’s mobile OS is available on plenty of smartphones, from low- to high-end, but the iPhone is considered, by default, as a high-end device not available for an affordable price unless purchased with some sort of a cell-phone plan.

BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman says that Apple will not create a new iPhone 4s to sell for a cheaper price and thus fight the low-end Android smartphones. According to him Apple already has that and it’s called the iPhone 3GS.

Apple is still selling the iPhone 3GS in its official store, but considering it’s still bound to AT&T, that’s not the kind of smartphone people that hate post-paid contracts will want to buy. The iPhone 3GS currently sells for $49.00, with new two-year agreements, and we’re only looking at the 8GB version. The device could qualify as a low-end device for Apple, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a great idea on the long run for Apple when it comes to the software. iOS 5 won’t be available to iPhone 3G users and once Apple launches iOS 6 next year we could see the iPhone 3GS get a similar treatment. Not to mention that if the iPhone 3GS were to be kept alive, then, starting with September, we could have three iPhone versions in stores: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S/5.

In other words, even if Apple will launch a low-end device, it’ll have to be something just a little better than the iPhone 3GS, a handset that could put up a fair fight with the Motorola Triumph (and other similar, affordable, pre-pay-only, Android devices), such as the iPhone 4. Or, a newly created iPhone 4S, which would be slightly better than the iPhone 4, and more affordable (in case that’s doable), and come with that something-new smell some buyers want when buying smartphones.

What do you say, folks, would you rather buy a cheaper iPhone 4S or the high-end iPhone 5?