According to a report from Reuters this morning, Apple has instructed its Asian manufacturers to begin production of a lower priced iPhone 4 with just 8GB of on-board storage. The information comes from “People with knowledge of the matter”. The flash drives for the 8GB iPhone 4 will be manufactured by a Korean company according to the same sources but no company name was revealed.

This would follow the same pattern of device releases that we have seen in previous years. When the iPhone 3GS was launched, the current iPhone 3G was offered as a cheaper entry level iPhone with 8GB of storage. Again when the iPhone 4 was launched last year, the iPhone 3GS was offered with 8GB of storage at a much cheaper price.

Not the greatest revelation when you consider previous Apple release patterns. Having said that, an iPhone 4 with 8GB of storage at a very competitive price would still be a very compelling device for many!