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Apple has been dropping even stronger hints about a new smaller and cheaper iPhone model at the next release cycle.

There have been rumours for some time now about Apple releasing a cut-price model aimed at the lower end of the smartphone market. Lots of analysts have noticed that Apple’s rivals such as Samsung are doing so well simply because they have such a vast range of smartphone models available.

No matter what your price range, there’s a Samsung phone to suit every budget. And recently it’s looked more likely that Apple will be moving in this direction as opposed to the current situation where all the iPhones are relatively expensive and are aimed at the more wealthy demographic.

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, recently appeared at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference. There he strongly hinted at his company offering cheaper iPhones in the near future. He said that when they reduced the price for older iPhone models they were surprised by how quickly the demand increased. He also went on the record claiming that Apple has a history of releasing cheaper products to satisfy demand for those who can’t afford its flagship range. For example, the iPod Shuffle was massively successful in the wave of the iPod Classic and iPod Touch.

But one aspect that Tim Cook did reiterate is that Apple is not interested in making products cheaper for the sake of it. He made it clear that a cheaper iPhone will be designed with the goal of making a great new product rather than just trying to make a cheaper version of the iPhone. Apple won’t try to simply make a cut-price version to fill a gap in the market – they’ll reinvent the device from the ground up in the same fashion as what happened with the iPod Shuffle.

Even so, this is the clearest indication yet (and from the most senior source) that Apple is going to release an iPhone that’s priced much lower than current offerings. It may well also turn out to be smaller as well but it’s not clear yet where Apple will try to cut costs in the design. We should know soon for sure whether or not these rumours turn to have any truth behind them.

What do you think? Will Apple release a cheaper iPhone this year? And would you want to buy one? How much do you think it should cost? Let us know!

If you enjoyed last week’s Timeout Tuesday where Nick Jojola took photos of Roberta Mancino in 126 mph freefall after jumping out of a majestic C-130 Hercules.

This interesting behind-the-scenes video explains more about just why this was such a difficult stunt to pull off. It also give a fascinating insight into some of the technicalities and risks involved in taking photos while skydiving as well as the capabilities of the HTC One phones. The finished product is pretty amazing, huh?

Struggling BlackBerry manufacturer RIM has claimed that the UK launch of its new Z10 smartphone has been the best ever seen. Hard as that may be to believe following BlackBerry’s fall from grace over the last several years, RIM released a statement saying that the first week of sales of the Z10 were almost three times as strong as any of BlackBerry smartphone release. No official sales figures whatsoever have been forthcoming, however RIM seems very pleased with itself and there have been reports that retail stores such as Phones 4u have run out of stock.

The Z10 is a new flagship phone running a brand-new operating system that RIM hopes will turn BlackBerry’s fortunes around. Not only does it come with the shiny new BlackBerry 10 OS but has also ditched BlackBerry’s hallmark QWERTY physical keyboard.

The size of the handset is quite big in comparison to the average and the bezel around the screen is quite wide. Having said that, it fits well in the hand and the 4.2 inch screen looks good – it’s high resolution and bright enough for outdoor use.

The Z10 comes with a dual core 1.5 GHz CPU, a decent 2GB chunk of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera and 4G support. Running on this hardware, the new operating system is very smooth although not that original. There are some aspects of the OS that don’t seem completely finished yet and the mapping software certainly pales in comparison to Google’s offering. It’s hard to see the Z10 as anything other than BlackBerry playing catch-up.

Still, it certainly seems like good news for RIM that this handset has been selling well. Of course, it still remains to be seen well it fares in the long term but these initial reports are certainly promising.

Where to get a BlackBerry Z10?

Click through the links below for the latest special offers on RIM’s new handset:

Have you ever owned a BlackBerry? What do you think of the new Z10? Have you seen it sold out anywhere. And, most importantly of all, would you buy one?