However, the initiative will only be open to a restricted number of large publishers, rather than the thousands of smaller developers currently selling their titles on the main App Store.

PocketGamer’s sources had no details on when this might happen, although Apple’s WWDC conference in June was suggested as a possible launch venue.

The move may help Apple combat the natural trend towards low priced Apps, and would also indicate that Apple may be listening to long-running developer complaints that the Top 100 lists tend to reward cheaper but higher volume apps.

Being able to sustain higher priced apps in the App Store is, of course, in Apple’s best interest. This is not the first time Apple has tried to promote these premium apps. In November, Apple invited select app developers to a press event highlighting many $9.99 apps and games. While several high profile have been introduced at the $9.99 price point, many have quickly seen price drops in the highly competitive App Store market.

Games are the most popular type of app the iTunes App Store making up almost 25% of all titles.TouchArcade.com covers the growing market of iPhone games.

MacRumors has discovered that Apple’s iPhone 2.x Firmware has evidence of the next generation iPhone which has been designated “iPhone2,1″.

Apple uses these models numbers to distinguish between different hardware models. The original iPhone carries the model number of “iPhone 1,1″ while the 3G iPhone is labeled “iPhone 1,2″. These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices. Similarly, the iPod Touch was originally introduced as the “iPod 1,1″ and the most recent hardware revision was labeled “iPod2,1″. The 2,1 iPod Touch added a speaker, volume controls, microphone support and a much faster processor than the 1st generation model. This new model number can be found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist in an unencrypted firmware.