Lately, the most heated debate in the telecom world surrounds Apple and its ultimate gadget, iPhone. After the financial results of Apple and AT&T were announced earlier this month, the analysts were very quick to notice that there was a 1,7 million discrepancy.

Besides doing the math and searching the iPhone through Apple and its partners’ retail chains, some of the analysts considered that the “missing” phones could be a sign that the iPhone frenzy is starting to wear off.

Following the theory that the iPhones are piling up in stores another question has emerged: will Apple be capable to reach the previously announced mark of 10 million phones sold by the end of 2008?

However, the right question is not whether Apple will reach the mark, but how much is the Cupertino company willing to pay to reach it? For the moment, Apple has a lot of methods to push the sales of iPhone.

According to iSuppli, a company that performed a teardown analysis on the iPhone in order to find out what is the total hardware bill-of-materials (BOM), production of the 8 GB version of iPhone was evaluated at around $265.83 in July last year. At that time, Apple who was selling sells the phone for $600, had a margin of 55% on each iPhone sold.

But few months later, with the clear aim to push the sales, Apple slashed the phone price to $399. As in the meanwhile, the BOM has also decreased, it is sure that a new price cut could be announced anytime this year.

It is almost sure that during 2008, Steve Jobs will announce a new iPhone with 3G capabilities and maybe with a larger hard drive. This is just another reason to reduce the price of the 8 GB version of iPhone.

Unlike the iPod, Apple was more aggressive in promoting and selling its iPhone. The company’s officials are aware that music and mobile businesses are two different markets While Apple is already a well-established brand in music, it has to prove its ability to play at the same table with the telecom giants. And reaching the target is the best way to prove it.

On the other hand, there is also a geographical factor involved. In 2008, Apple intends to launch its iPhone in Asia. If Apple will manage to launch a cheaper iPhone in Asia, then the company will be able to sell somewhere between two and three million phones in no time.

There were reports that that Apples officials are negotiating with China Mobile the launch of iPhone. China Mobile or CMCC, represents the largest mobile phone operator from China, as well the largest mobile phone operator in the world if ranked by the number of subscribers, which is about 349.66 million.

Also, in December, there were reports that Apple is negotiating with NTT DoCoMo, the largest Japanese mobile operator, to launch its iPhone in Japan.

As for myself, I’m confident that Apple is more than capable to meet its target. The real question is, what will the consequences be for the mobile phone industry when Apple holds 2 percent of the market?