A little over a week ago, Noah reported on a rumor from MobileCrunch about a $10 decrease to monthly iPhone rate plans. Now BusinessWeek is getting in on the action, giving this rumor some legs.

According to BW, people in the know at AT&T say the company's ?considering cutting the price of its monthly service package or offering a range of lower-priced plans." The idea on the table is a $20 ?limited-access? plan that might be available along with a less-expensive iPhone, which many are expecting to be debuted at the Worldwide Developer's Conference. (What does ?limited access? mean? Beats me. But I can't wait to find out. Answers should be coming soon, though. WWDC is only a few weeks away.)

Of course, Apple and AT&T are still in talks over extending its exclusivity arrangement, so it would make sense that they?d delve into other topics like this.

The rest of BW's report is pretty much just guesswork, some of which I find dubious. Sure, Apple could target the lower-income crowd with a pre-paid or $99 iPhone with reduced AT&T plans? And the Sun could start rotating around the Earth. I mean, c?mon: Apple's always positioned itself as the Mercedes Benz of the tech sector. Would it really contradict its own brand by catering to the bargain-hunting masses with a pre-paid handset? Then again, two years ago, I never would've thought iPhones would be available at WalMart, so who really knows?

The article points to a survey indicating that 43% of current iPhone owners earn more than $100k per year, but it seems the sheer number of wealthy consumers is shrinking. And, as we already know, the pre-paid phone business is actually one of the few industries doing well in this economy.

Well, if it means more people can have better tech at their disposal, then I guess it's all for the good. And hey ? it would make Christmas shopping this year super easy, with no guesswork over sizes or colors. I can just pick up a whole fleet of cheapie iPhone as stocking stuffers.



[BusinessWeek via Engadget Mobile and Apple Insider]