The lowering of the price of Apple’s year old iPhone 3G shoots directly at the only days old Palm Pre and could well shake up other smartphone rivals by setting a new low benckmark for smartphone pricing reports Reuters.

The $100 discount for the iPhone 3G has caught iPhone wannabe’s attention; analysts say the $99 iPhone 3G could hurt rivals like LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Nokia.

Lawrence Harris an analyst of CL King has said the price reduction on the Apple iPhone 3G 8GB is the most important aspect of Apple’s announcements and is fairly significant which will bring the iPhone 3G down below the key $100 threshold.