AT&T Reported Ready To Offer 3G iPhone, Starting at $199

Fortune reports that AT&T expects to launch Apple’s new 3G iPhone either on, or very near to, the June 27 anniversary of the original handset’s 2007 launch. Citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, the magazine said AT&T intends to heavily subsidize the new smartphone, giving anyone who signs up for a two-year contract a $200 discount on the iPhone’s retail sticker price.

Currently the least expensive iPhone is the 8GB model for $399, which could make the price $199 with the subsidy.

AT&T’s strategy, Fortune said, is to use a discounted 3G iPhone to entice subscribers away from rivals Verizon and Sprint. AT&T CFO Rick Lindner recently told investors that AT&T continues to see users flocking to the iPhone. “Over 40 percent of those customers are new to us,” he said.

Lindner also said AT&T had not seen any slowdown in demand for the original iPhone in advance of the carrier’s impending release of a 3G version. “Through the first quarter, it was pretty stable,” he said.

A Potential Opening

According to Fortune, AT&T’s introduction of a new 3G Blackberry from Research In Motion is being delayed by several months from its original June delivery date. This would appear to provide Apple with a potential opening to make inroads at AT&T in both the consumer and enterprise markets.

Still, some industry observers think Apple still has a long way to go before it can challenge the Blackberry’s supremacy in the enterprise. “For enterprises, it’s really about typing and the keyboard,” said Brownlee Thomas, a principal analyst with Forrester Research.

“The iPhone gives a wonderful user experience for viewing photos or looking up a phone number,” Thomas observed, but its touch-sensitive screen “is not something you can type a long e-mail on.” And it will probably take Apple “a couple more generations before that…