Unnamed Apple executives hinted in a recent meeting that they are looking to differentiate different iPhone models by software rather than hardware.
According to Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner in a recent meeting Apple executives said that "[The] iPhone is still in its early days and could gain share by: providing more functionality, lowering prices, growing geographically, or segmenting the market with different models.” When pushed for further details the continued saying that “Segmentation would focus on software.”
It sounds plausible that Apple might be looking to do something like this. Creating different models of iPhones by simply focusing on different types of applications would save Apple money as they would only have to produce essentially one device. They could also charge lower prices for models with less software features and more for models with all the extras.
While it may sound plausible I don't think this is a particularly good idea and Apple would be making a mistake by even considering it. The whole concept sounds strangely similar to when iPhone Touch 1g users had to pay $20 to upgrade their software with a few basic extra apps. Apple stopped that bs with the iPod Touch 2g