The steep price cut less than three months after the iPhone’s launch on June 29 — and the discontinuation of the 4-gigabyte iPhone, which sold for $499 — were surprising from Apple, which usually keeps prices steady while adding new features. It normally discounts products only when they age.

Analysts said quick discounts are typical for the cell phone industry, however. The world’s best-selling cell phone, Motorola Razr, for instance, debuted at $499 but can now be bought for less than $100.

“This is about Apple learning how to become a cell phone retailer,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications industry analyst based in Atlanta. “All of a sudden it’s in the cell phone business, and everyone is trying to figure out how to measure it, and we don’t know yet.”

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the company is on pace to sell 1 million iPhones in the United States by the end of September.

The newest iPod media players, also announced Wednesday, include a model called iPod Touch that incorporates the iPhone’s touch-screen and adds the ability to wirelessly download songs directly from the new iTunes Wi-Fi Store. Also new are a version of the best-selling iPod, the Nano, that plays video and a larger capacity, 160-gigabyte version of the video iPod, newly dubbed the iPod Classic.

Apple also announced a partnership with Starbucks: Starting in October, the coffee chain’s icon will light up on the Touch whenever a user nears a shop that has Wi-Fi access. Users can then download the song that’s playing in that Starbucks shop or get a list of the 10 most recent songs played.

Apple executives said the revamped and expanded iPod line — in which the iPhone is recast as the top model — is the company’s most robust lineup ever for the holiday season. In 2006, Apple sold a record 21 million iPod players during the holiday quarter, about 50 percent more than in the same period the year before.

Apple has now sold more than 110 million iPods since they debuted in 2001.