SlashGear

An cellphone industry pricing strategist has tipped Apple and AT&T for an upcoming service plan cut, bringing their current entry-level price of $69 down to $59.  Cote Collaborative analyst Michael Cote expects the announcement to come on June 8th at the WWDC, slicing $240 off of the overall cost of a two-year iPhone 3G contract in the US.

It currently costs $1,880 over a two-year period to own an Apple iPhone 3G, a figure which Cote suggests “does not address the whole market”.  Rather than introduce a cheaper, cut-down iPhone – the much-rumored iPhone nano, perhaps – the analyst expects Apple and AT&T to modify their monthly price plans to lure in users who might previously thought the iPhone 3G too rich for their blood.

If true, this could be the first sign of Apple ramping up for Palm’s next entry into the smartphone industry, the Pre.  The iPhone 3G was knocked from its best-selling-US-smartphone top spot in Q1 2009 by the BlackBerry Curve, a handset heavily discounted by carriers.

[via MobileCrunch]