Rumors that the wildly popular Apple iPhone will be released this summer in a $99 version are rampant right now on the web. Will it happen? While a $99 version of the iPhone will undoubtedly sell well and crowd out some competing smart phones, the real impact would be at the other end of the spectrum, as customers who have been used plain old flip-phones trade up for the greatly improved bells and whistles that come with even an abbreviated version of an iPhone. High end customers will be swayed less easily, since cost is not as much a factor for them. Another problem is that one of the biggest companies to take a hit from the intro of a $99 iPhone would be Apple itself, whose profit margin on each phone would fall dramatically.

Summer is when the latest iPhone upgrades are set to be announced, and Apple is famous for keeping an element of surprise in every press conference, but will the summer announcement include a $99 iPhone? Most likely, the internet rumors are a trial balloon released by Apple itself. Whatever happens this summer, one thing is certain: It won’t be what anyone who blogs about Apple can predict.