Will iPhone go the way of IBM's Selectric typewriter?

FOR the iPhone's 10th anniversary, Apple Inc is planning to release new and upgraded models later this year, with updated designs, improved cameras and better screens.

But a more important product launch actually began in mid-March, when the company quietly reintroduced the discontinued, two-and-a-half-year-old iPhone 6 in several Asian countries and Eastern Europe.

That might sound dull. But for Apple, which…