Steve Jobs discusses the iPhone. Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

The recent rumor that a $99 iPhone would be making its way to Wal-Mart set the Internet abuzz last week. That is until the idea was debunked. For the record, Wal-Mart will sell iPhones next year, but the entry-level $199 price isn't expected to change. Nevertheless, it prompted me to seek out some informed speculation about the iPhone's possible future—emphasis on the speculation, given how closely Apple holds its future cards to its vest.

I reached out to Jonathan Steuer, a technology consultant based in New York City. Prior to striking out on his own, Steuer was a vice president and general manager at the consumer-research firm Iconoculture, whose clients ran the gamut from financial services (MasterCard International) to automotive (Ford) to technology (Sony Electronics). He's perhaps best known for founding Hotwired, Wired magazine's Web counterpart—considered the Internet's first banner-ad-supported online magazine at the time of its October 1994 launch—and has also served as a judge for the annual Best of CES competition at the spectacle that is the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. When I asked him about where the iPhone was headed, the first thing he stressed was that part of what has driven the iPhone's early success is that it is constantly evolving, through both hardware (expanded storage and the 3G radio) and software (the operating system upgrades and new programs made available through the Apple App Store). "It becomes so much more functional over time," says Steuer. "As a consumer, most of my tech products get worse over time. This one gets better, which makes it a great value."