iPhone 3GS making a comeback as $200 prepaid handset?

On the list of Apple rumors that just won’t go away, there’s an iOS HDTV, a smaller iPad, and a less expensive iPhone. According to Jeffries & Co. analyst Peter Misek (who has been right on the money before), they’re finally ready to officially put a check mark next to that last item.

Misek says that Apple has signed a global distribution deal with a major partner that will see the iPhone 3GS resurrected for a push into emerging markets around the world. With the street price expected to be somewhere between $200 and $250 unlocked, the 3GS would no doubt also get some looks from first time smartphone buyers — particularly teens who have grown up on the iPod touch.

Does the iPhone 3GS still have what it takes, though? Its 320×480 pixel screen is a massive step down from the iPhone 4 and 4th-gen iPod touch. The processor is a single-core ARM Cortex-A8 clocked at 600MHz, and woefully underpowered compared to what’s in current iOS hardware. But when it’s lined up against devices like the HTC Desire C, the iPhone 3GS looks plenty competitive — their screen size, resolution, and processor clock are identical.

Even if Apple didn’t bump any specs, the 3GS could hold its own against the inexpensive Android, Windows Phone, and Bada handsets from Apple’s competitors. It still offers one key feature they don’t, after all: iOS and access to the largest App Store around. At just slightly more than the price of an iPod touch, a no-contract iPhone 3GS for a couple hundred bucks could be a very successful attack on the low end of the market by Apple.

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