Apparently on Friday Apple shares rose 1.3 percent on the back of speculation that Apple may push out a lower priced iPhone handset, and also apparently benefited from the news that Palm has informed investors that their Palm Pre and Palm Pixi aren’t doing to well, reports an article on the WSJ.

It would appear that the speculation about a new lower price iPhone which was mentioned in a research note by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty along with Mathew Schneider that Apple will introduce a new low cost iPhone has benefited Apple shares.

Word has it the analysts’ wrote…”As we’ve highlighted in the past, the cost of the [iPhone] and service plan is currently the biggest barrier to incremental demand in both mature markets and emerging markets like China.”

Apple has of course declined to comment, and Apple shares apparently closed after regular trading $2.62 higher at $204.62. RIM BlackBerry also benefited from the Palm news seeing shares rise 1.5 percent to $70.88.