There are rumors that Apple's upcoming 3G iPhone, which will have other new features or improvements as well, is going to sell for only $199 due to subsidies from AT&T. This means that the carrier will pay for half of the gadget's price in exchange for a two-year commitment from the customer. The rumors were apparently started off by Fortune, which also reports that both AT&T and Apple declined to comment on the matter.

The $200 subsidy is not hard to envision. After all, iPhone customers spend around $100 each month for their mobile service. T-Mobile in Germany and O2/Carphone Warehouse in the UK have also offered subsidies of more than $100, which quickly led to significantly boosted sales.

Fortune says that the next-generation iPhone will be launched around the one year anniversary of the gadget, which is on June 27, will feature a GPS chip and will be 2.5mm thinner.

Research firm Strategy Analytics reported on Friday that despite the 1.7 million iPhone shipped in the first quarter, the company’s global market share fell for the first time, from 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter to 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

It will also be interesting to see whether Apple will finally include an instant messaging client in the next iPhone's firmware. An instant messaging client is probably the most requested feature on the iPhone, but Apple has apparently yielded to pressure from carriers to delay the release of an iChat port.

However, as third-party developers will create such applications, Apple will not afford to be left behind. The company has already showcased AOL's IM program during the SDK announcement earlier this year.