Huh? Rumours are rumours, they aren't facts, there is no product that has been announced or launched, just a bunch of rumour mongers discussing what amounts to disagreements (or agreements as the case may be) among blind people about whether the sky is indeed black or purple (sorry, no offence to the blind).
It even goes further than that, however, meaning the general agreement here that Apple will do something they've never done, which is: release a new product into an existing product family that does the same thing (virtually or totally) as the existing product but for cheaper? Really?
One only need look at Apple's existing product lines and figure out (aside from price) what differentiates each product in each family. We have lots of history and existing product lines to examine, we don't even have to do much guessing.
It would be so un-Apple to release a product that addresses a contract issue with mostly (as you point out) US carriers.