Forbes reports that Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi apparently had a meeting with Apple COO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue last week.

The analyst reports that Apple’s COO suggested that it is “likely to develop lower priced offerings” to expand the iPhonemarket.

Forbes reports:

The analyst says Cook “appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings” to expand the market for the iPhone. Cook said the company is planning “clever things” to address the prepaid market, and that Apple did not want its products to be “just for the rich,” and that the company is “not ceding any market.”

We’ve heard rumors that Apple is working on a cheaper and smaller iPhone model, which could be priced at $200 without requiring a contract. However, New York Times reported that although Apple is exploring ways to reduce the price of the iPhone to make it affordable to a wider audience by changing internal components of the device, it is not working on a smaller iPhone.

The analyst also reports that Cook believes that the tablet market will be much bigger than the PC market. He wrote:

Cook indicated that the tablet market would be much bigger than the PC market. Sacconaghi concludes that if so, it could eventually be a $60 billion to $100 billion business for Apple alone. Cook also said he expected intense competition in tablets, more so than in smart phones, with all PC and smart phone vendors likely to participate, but he added that Apple has a strong head start, and that it has interesting new things in the pipeline.

What do you think? Should Apple launch a cheaper iPhone model?