These old iPhones will one day be joined by new iPhones, like day follows night. Photo Yutaka Tsutano / Flickr

According to “two people with knowledge of the matter,” Apple is set to release an 8-GB iPhone 4 aimed at the low end of the market. Currently, the iPhone 4 comes in 16-GB and 32-GB versions.

The story, from Reuters, comes by way of a Korean manufacturer that is supposedly making the 8-GB flash drives for these phones. The source refused to name the company concerned.

The thinking goes that there will be a low-end iPhone to complement the new iPhone 5, or iPhone 4S, or whatever it is called. There is some precedent for this: Apple always keeps last year’s model around as a cheap option. In the United States, the iPhone 3GS can be had for as little as $50. In the rest of the world, you can get it free with a contract.

Dropping the iPhone 4 back to 8 GB and 16 GB makes sense. After all,if you don’t care enough to buy the new model, then you probably don’t care about a lot of storage, and it keeps the manufacturing price low enough to still turn a profit.

In other “news,” next year will bring a slimmer, faster iPad, and the sun will rise every day.

Exclusive: Apple suppliers building cheaper, 8GB iPhone [Reuters]

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