According to a new report one in every ten Apple iPhone 3G handset purchasers is most likely to be an international pre-paid subscriber, and could find themselves forking over $600.00 for the privilege of owning an iPhone 3G.

Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst reckons 53% of Apple’s complete addressable market for the iPhone 3G handset will be pre-paid customers who don’t want a lengthy contract and will then not be privy to the subsidies offered to those customers who sign for several-year contracts.

So, without the subsidies, pre-paid customer will most likely have to pay in excess of $600.00 for an Apple iPhone 3G. Munster’s estimate assumes Apple indeed charges carriers the average $425.00 per handset and the carriers will then murk-up the pre-paid charge a further $175.00 to turn a profit.

Gene Munster’s model calls for Apple Inc. to sell 12.9 million iPhone 3G handsets in 2008 with a staggering 45 million iPhone 3G handset in 2009, this would then bring Apple a 17% cut of the global smartphone market at the end on 2009. Munster estimates of the 2.9 million iPhone 3G handsets purchased in 2008, 2.7 million will be brought by pre-paid customers. Furthermore he estimates of the 45 million iPhone 3G handsets being sold in 2009 only 5.7 million will be taken up as pre-paid.

Munster told clients: “While 17 percent may seem aggressive, Apple currently has 20 percent in North American driven by a $400 priced phone. We only expect Apple to have 20 percent or greater smartphone share in two regions, North America and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).”

Source — apple insider