Apple's decision to lower the price of existing iPhones has been widely praised by analysts.

The company announced the decision to offer its existing 8GB iPhone for $99 (£61) at its annual World Wide Developers Conference today, and to offer higher-end iPhones at the old price points.

"This is pretty much in line with what we were expecting," said Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi.

"It is right thinking to keep the current products to widen the market, and offer a new price point and memory option. The market is more challenging now, so price adjustments will be very welcome."

The move will probably attract new users to the iPhone platform, and will not come as welcome news to Palm, which launched its 8GB Pre handset yesterday.

"It's probably enough for many existing owners of the 2G iPhone to upgrade. Most of the 3G owners still have another 12 months contract to run anyway," said Dean Bubley, an independent technology industry analyst with Disruptive Analysis.

"Also, it looks like it's been priced to compete against some specific rivals, notably the Palm Pre, and extend market reach, rather than be the ultimate heavyweight ultra-spec super-phone.

"Probably makes a lot of commercial sense, as I suspect Apple would rather have 50 million normal midrange users than 20 million ubergeeks. Given the economy, they probably made some pragmatic decisions about designing it down to a price, rather than going the Nokia route and putting in everything but the kitchen sink."