Yes, you read right. We officially predict that the iPhone will ship with 8GB and 16GB instead of the measly 4GB & 8GB announced at this point. Yes, the 1st generation one. The one, that will ship on June 29th, 2007.

Before I continue, I’d like to make it known that we have absolutely no insider information on this subject, so please don’t rush out and stack up on Apple Stock merely based on this post. That being said, we still believe that there are plenty of signs that the iPhone will indeed ship with 8GB for $499 and 16GB for $599.

Here’s our reasoning:

Under-Promise / Over-Deliver

Simply put, Apple has a history of under-promising and over-delivering. Remember when Steve Jobs announced the 1st generation MacBook Pro during MacWorld on January 10th, 2006? He advertised it with 1.67 GHz for $1999 and 1.83 GHz for $2499.

However, even after Apple had already taken pre-orders, the company bumped the specs to 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz respectively just days before shipping. At the same price. The press went crazy. Everybody was happy.

Maybe Apple does this because Steve Jobs thoroughly enjoys the applause he receives for such an announcement. However, I believe it’s due to mere practical reasons. Which brings us to…

Buyer’s Remorse

A lot of time has past since January and you’ve become very accustomed to the iPhone’s feature set. You’re ready to part with your money. But, even if you are the greatest iPhone fan boy (or girl) on the planet, you will still feel some kind of buyer’s remorse at some point after $499 or $599 have said goodbye to your wallet. (Or alternatively, when the credit card statement that you can’t afford finally arrives in the mail.)

However, if Apple would announce that the iPhone will ship with 8GB & 16GB instead of the expected 4GB & 8GB, just days before its release, wouldn’t you feel much better about your decision? Wouldn’t you’ve gotten a much better deal? Suddenly you will get double the memory at the same price you were already prepared to pay the day before.

You will experience less buyer’s remorse, and Apple can count on you to spread the word. In addition, the press will command Apple. Again, everyone will be happy.

And last but not least:

More NAND Flash For Apple

In April, AppleInsider reported that Apple was scrambling to secure even more flash memory, then previously agreed upon, from its largest suppliers.

Apple is asking for 400 – 500 million 4Gbit NAND flash equivalent chips, which is approximately 10 to 15 percent more than the two firms had agreed upon earlier.

Some analysts were wondering what Apple was planning to do with all that extra memory.

The South Korea-based semiconductor firm is similarly concerned that an oversupply for NAND flash chips may occur if the sales of iPod and iPhone products are not as strong as expected.

That won’t happen, if Apple will double the NAND flash in each and every iPhone. It certainly seems as if they might have enough to pull this one off.

And finally, Samsung has announced in April that they are beginning volume production of higher-density flash memory.

The new 16Gb chip which has a multi-level cell (MLC) structure can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card.

So, what do you think? 8GB and 16GB? Complete and utter wishful thinking or quite possible? Maybe we will find out on Monday.

Let us know in the comments.