Apple Offering $99 iPhone 3GS To Battle Competition

In case anyone forgot, Q4 last year was sort of important for Verizon Wireless. It introduced not one, but two, new Android phones — its first. Verizon has pitched the Motorola Droid head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone from day one. (There’s a slew of attack ads proving as much.) The Droid costs $199 after rebates with a new contract.

Verizon also bowed the HTC Eris, which offers many of the features of the Droid. It has a better user interface and is lighter and thinner, but loses the keyboard and dazzling display of the Droid. It sells for $99 after rebates with contract.

Why bring these price points up? Apple and AT&T offered a $99 iPhone 3GS with 8GB of storage. What’s the big deal, you ask, AT&T already had a $99 iPhone, right? Well, the iPhone 3GS offered several serious improvements over the iPhone 3G that may make it an even more enticing pick.

First, it bumps up the processor — remember, the “S” is for “speed”. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera instead of a 2 megapixel camera, and it offers video capture as well, which the iPhone 3G doesn’t. It also has a compass and voice command feature that the iPhone 3G can’t use. Those features make not match the Droid or Eris’ 5 megapixel cameras, but the speedy performance of the iPhone 3GS is real.

Introducing an even more capable model at the same $99 price point was just what many potential Verizon customers needed to convince them to skip the Droid and Eris and go with the iPhone instead.

Will it happen in the future? Apple and AT&T are mum on the subject.

Click here to see all about the new Droid phone from Verizon

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