Well, if the leaked photos, leaked videos, legal battles, and planned Steve Jobs keynote weren't enough to convince you that a new iPhone was coming, then nothing will. But we have yet another piece of evidence that suggests it's coming anyways.

Retail mammoth WalMart has been given the go-ahead to drop the price on the iPhone down to $97, a sure sign that the company is looking to clear out inventory in anticipation of an upcoming product release.

For those of you who will only settle for the latest and greatest from the iPhone world, this is a sucker deal. After all, who buys a phone just days before the company rolls out a new model to make it obsolete?

For others, however, this could be the time to move up from a regular phone and get an iPhone. A 16GB 3GS is still a pretty powerful handset and Apple will almost certainly maintain support for the model at least through the duration of your two-year contract.

While many Apple faithful will scoff at the notion of buying an iPhone at WalMart, users who don't need the latest and greatest and just want to get an upgrade over their older model and run-down battery could save themselves some decent money. If you're not into video chat or HD video or a snappy new case design, you could do much worse than to spring for the bargain price.

26 May 2010