Airbus were talking about offering a regional A330 which would have been cheaper than a normal one but not have had the payload for long haul. However there would be an option to upgrade the paperwork to normal specs in future by paying. The aircraft were the same, it simply allowed Airbus to expand the market without dropping the price of the entire line.
Computer printers are often identical throughout the range but the lower priced ones have features crippled because it is cheaper than producing different specifications for each model.