Is the #Apple goose cooked? #iPhone5s AND #iPhone5c? What?

To all the Apple folks: Is Steve Jobs turning over in his grave at the marketing idea of introducing a new iPhone and a cut-rate model of said phone at the same time?

I just don't get this idea, which seems totally true.

I'm not Jobs (or I'd be dead and unable to write this, even from my iCoffin) and I'm not current Apple CEO Tim Cook, Jobs' anointed heir. And, while I don't totally hate Apple smugness, or the smugness of at least some latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, iPhone-using, Meyer-lemon-squeezing neoliberals, I do dislike stereotyped versions of all that enough to bust Apple in the chops when the chance comes along.

And, I know Apple doesn't normally do something like this. Most tech companies don't. Imagine Jeff Bezos introducing a new version of the Kindle Fire, then at the same techie meeting, also saying, "Hey, we also have this cut-rate Kindle Smoulder." Nope, nope, nope.

I'm not a financial analyst, but, given that many have been bearish on Apple in general and Cook in particular recently,  I'd call this a black mark —bet-hedging worries usually don't play well with Wall Street, I think.

That said, given that Apple fanboys and fangirls easily can be punked, I suppose they'll find a way to spin this news. That includes even alleged skeptics who have done similarly before. Right, Chris Mooney?

Meanwhile, per blog posts I've written involving Apple's background in online infowars and the dark side of the Internet, things like a fingerprint log-in code? First, Apple's not read the science that fingerprints aren't quite so unique. Second, I wouldn't trust that Apple wouldn't save that biometric information elsewhere, no matter what it claims. Third, I wouldn't trust at all that the NSA wouldn't then try to get it.

Sadly, other "mobile device" companies will probably pick up on this horrible idea.