It seems that the usual “people briefed on Apple’s plans” have been telling one newspaper one thing and another newspaper something else -- only days after The Wall Street Journal claimed Apple was working on an “iPhone nano,” along comes The New York Times, who claims they’re not.

The New York Times is reporting that there will indeed be a cheaper iPhone -- one of these days -- but it won’t be the recently rumored “iPhone nano” quite yet. In fact, a “person who is in direct contact with Apple” claims, “the company would not make a smaller iPhone at this time, in part because a smaller device would not necessarily be much cheaper to manufacture and because it would be more difficult to operate.”

While that may disappoint many potential buyers, that doesn’t mean the company has abandoned making a more cost-effective iPhone in the future. After all, AT&T has recently been selling the previous-generation iPhone 3GS for a mere $49 with two-year contract, and most likely after Apple introduces an iPhone 5 (or whatever it may be called) this year, the cost of the iPhone 4 will also fall accordingly.

One of the biggest reasons to eschew a smaller iPhone is to avoid the kind of fragmentation that seems to be happening with Google’s Android platform. “A phone with a smaller screen would force many developers to rewrite their apps, which Apple wants to avoid,” according to the same Times source who threw cold water on the ongoing iPhone nano rumors.

So how will Apple get their “budget” iPhone? Most of the changes may be internal, according to a Times source who has worked on multiple versions of the iPhone. “Although the innards of the phone, including memory size or camera quality, could change to offer a less expensive model, the size of the device would not vary,” they revealed.

Last but not least, the Times report yet again fuels the fire of the “free MobileMe” speculation, claiming that the move will also add the ability for users to wirelessly sync their devices. “The goal is that your photos and other media content will eventually just sync across all your Apple devices without people having to do anything,” the source claimed.

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