Man, the rumors about iPhone 5 are all over the place. And let’s face it: this is Apple, and that’s the way it’s always going to be. But one aspect of the new device that hasn’t been addressed is its price. Will Apple go up in price due to new technology? Will they keep it the same, as they always have? Or might they even lower it, to be ultra competitive? Opinions, anyone?

Rumors, rumors, rumors. They’re stock in trade for Apple-focused journalists. There are rumors that suggest the iPhone 5 will have an edge-to-edge screen. There’s a pretty solid-sounding rumor that Sprint is getting its own iPhone 5, to compete with AT&T and Verizon. It may have an aluminum unibody. It will very likely be thinner than the more brick-like iPhone 4. Then there’s the rumors of advanced voice-operated controls. It goes without saying that the 5th-generation device will be faster than the 4th. Will it have a higher-res camera? Will it wash your windows and vacuum the floors???

But I can’t find a single substantial rumor regarding the iPhone 5 price. Apple traditionally upgrades its i-products once a year, while keeping the price of the new device the same as the old. The smartphone marketplace is getting more crowded by the day. Apple launched the iPad with competitive pricing, and hit a home run. Might they apply the same philosophy to the next generation of the world’s greatest phone?

And then there’s the iPhone 4S rumor. You know, the one that says Apple is also going to release a mid-range quality, modestly priced iPhone at the same time as the state-of-the-art iPhone 5. This does seem like something Apple would so, so I’m inclined to believe this one. An iPhone based on the iPhone 4 but priced in the $100 range would be a win-win for Apple. New iPhones, over the last few years, have been priced $199 for a lower memory version and $299 for maxed-out memory size. If Apple’s launching a lower-quality iPhone that’s $100 or less, there really wouldn’t be any reason to decrease the price of the flagship model.

Still, we can dream of a day when $50 iPhones become a reality, can’t we? They say that the more commonplace a technology becomes, the lower its prices dive. Look at flatscreen TVs; years ago they cost multiple thousands of dollars, but these days you can get a decent one for $500 or less.

This concept from designer Alexey Chugunnikov is a combination time-telling device and telephone, doing both things in unexpected, futuristic ways. It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, yet it’s gloriously within reach. And you want one.

It’s called the Rollerphone, and in its dormant mode, it’s a wrist band that projects the current time between its two ends. Like so:

Then, the phone part of it rings. What do you do? How do you answer this wearable piece of sexy chrome? On the underside of your wrist, you grab a slender piece of retracted metal and pull. Out slides something that would make Steve Jobs drool: a flexible, transparent touchscreen.

Sitting cozy in the palm of your hand, this screen is configurable to include smartphone features like apps, videos, music, texting, as well as a standard number pad for dialing.

Once you’ve tapped the “Answer” button, you just hold your wrist up to your face, and talk.

The projection part could probably be done today, though it would be wildly expensive. But technology like the flexible, retractable touchscreen is years away, even though scientists and engineers are already working on it. So there’s nothing here that’s outside the realm of possibility. Give it another ten years or so, and everybody could be using a Rollerphone.

UK Store Expansys has made the Samsung C6625 available for pre-order at £249.99 without contract. This could mean that the phone comes free with a contract. No release date has been specified.

The Samsung C6625 is a smartphone with QWERTY keyboard, 2 mega-pixel camera, push email, GPS and 3G connectivity running on Windows 6.1

Featuring a high resolution 2.6″ wide-screen display (non-touch), the phone is ideal for Office usage and compatible with most MS Office applications, also Microsoft Exchange. The Samsung C6625 has 100MB internal memory and a microSDHC card slot and the 2MP camera can record short video clips.

More specifications.

• 2.6 inch non-touchscreen display with 320 x 240 pixels
• Tri-band GSM connectivity (900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz connectivity)
• HSDPA 2100 MHz connectivity
• A-GPS
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Stereo Bluetooth
• 2MP camera with video recording
• 100MB of on-board memory
• MicroSDHC card support
• Talk time: up to 420 minutes
• Standby time: up to 300 hours
• 113.6 x 63 x 11.6 mm
• 107.7 grams