An iPhone "Family," But Not Until After WWDC

Looks like Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference may not prove to be the Palm Pre killjoy some had been expecting (Note: Walt says otherwise). In dueling research notes today, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner and Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster say that WWDC is likely to be something of a disappointment. Reiner doesn’t see Apple (AAPL) announcing new iPhones at the event for fear of upstaging its iPhone 3.0 and Snow Leopard operating systems. And Munster says that even if Apple does uncrate some new handsets — a “family” of them, he predicts — they won’t arrive at market until mid-summer. “Regardless of the debate surrounding the announcement of new iPhones (at WWDC or when Steve Jobs returns to the company), we continue to expect the new models to ship in July,” he writes. “We also continue to expect a family of iPhones to be released; 1) a low-cost version with lower capacity, the same camera as current iPhones, and possibly fewer software features, and 2) a high-end iPhone model in 16GB and 32GB versions with an upgraded video camera and new features for $199 and $299 respectively.”

Incidentally, Munster doesn’t put much stock in all this talk of a $99 iPhone and cheaper data plan, either. He speculates that a low-end iPhone might price out at about $149 and gives slim odds to the idea that AT&T will lower its data plan rates.