Maybe you’ve heard the rumors swirrling around over the past week or so…but it looks like they are all true. According to Bloomberg.com, Apple is preparing to offer the iPhone for only $99 through an exclusive deal with Walmart. The $99 will be limited to 4GB of memory, but suddenly the once elite cell phone will be competing with the middle-tier phones on the market.
Here’s more from Bloomberg.com:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will become the second mass-market retail chain to start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone, with two store representatives saying the world’s largest retailer will carry two models of the Web-surfing handset this month.
Employees in the cell-phone departments at five California stores, contacted by phone today, said Wal-Mart will offer iPhones by the end of December. Employees are currently being trained on how to sell the device, all five said.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs tapped Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. electronics retailer, in September to sell the device as he works to win more buyers. Before then, the iPhone had been sold only by Apple and AT&T Inc., the exclusive provider of wireless service for the phone in the U.S.
Analysts say Apple may offer a discontinued 4-gigabyte version through Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart and sell it for $99. Apple currently sells two models at $199 and $299.
“A $99, Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst for Kaufman Brothers in San Francisco. “One of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line” with low- end, mid-range and high-end products, Wu said in a Dec. 5 note.
Damn. Including myself and my wife, I can count at least five people in my immediate circle of friends whom have all bought a new iPhone over the past couple of weeks. I wonder what the policy is on taking them back and then making the drive out to the burbs to find a Walmart?
Seriously though, what a brilliant and well-timed move for Walmart. I wonder what all of the regular iPhone distributors are thinking right about now…right before the holidays….in a bad economy. I guarantee they’ll lose some serious market share to Walmart.
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