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Apple is planning on reducing the price of the iPhone and iPod touch by $100, according to tip received by .

If this is accurate, the cost of buying the just introduced 16GB iPhone or 32GB iPod touch would fall to $399. The price of the 16GB iPod touch would drop to $299 and the 8GB version would, like the 4GB iPhone, be swept into the dustbin of history.

The time-frame for the price reductions is said to be no later than mid-April and possibly as soon as before the end of this month; when Apple is expected to roll out its software developer kit and introduce what many expect to be an iTunes-based system for delivering native third-party iPhone applications to users.

Should Apple lower the prices sooner than later, during the very same month it started selling the 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod touch, expect a lot of customers who've purchased these models and have paid full price to be a tad pissed off—just as early iPhone adopters were back in September.

For that's when Apple lowered the cost of buying an 8GB iPhone by a whopping $200 only a couple of months after thousands of people waited online for hours, some over night, to buy one for $599. These early adopters and Apple loyalists felt their favorite technology company ripped off and took advantage of them.

While important, the cuts wouldn't just be about spurring sales on its current models. Apple may implement them to make room and prepare for the introduction of a 3G-capable iPhone, which is forgone conclusion for this year—perhaps sooner than later, it would seem. Why Apple wouldn't wait until the actual announcement of the 3G iPhone to lower the prices of current models is highly questionable, however.

The first group of iPhones top out at 2.5G EDGE cellular-wireless data networking technology, far slower than the 3G networks all the carriers, including AT&T, who sell the iPhone also support.

Many have wondered why Apple would launch a product that’s as much Internet-device as phone on a much slower network than what was available to them. Could it have been to get folks who bought the non-3G models to pony up for another iPhone when a 3G-capable model becomes available?