BGR: Walmart to sell $99 iPhone?

Ok I am a walmart employee in the connection center and i can tell you that we are getting the IPhone and it will release on December 28. the price will be $199 with a 2 yr contract and it will be the 8 GB model. Now as far as Wal-Mart customers being middle class poor folk, you would be surprised how many pda plans we sell which is $30 a month added just like on the iphone because seriously take a look at walmart.... AT&T has the Blackberry Curve for $199.99 with $100 mail in rebate
walmart has exact same phone $28.88 with 2 yr contract and Blackberry data plan or $58.88 without the data plan.... More and More AT&T customers are coming to Wal-mart to upgrade because even though we dont have the wide variety of phones we have them beat by 50-75% in price.

As a walmart employee who works in the connection center ( I sell cell phones) I can confirm that we are getting the 4gb iPhone on or around December 26 we have been told if not the 26th for sure very early in January. The price of the phone will be $99

Much as I would like everyone to have an iPhone - check out this web site and watch the movie as I did (from Netflix) and you won't go to Walmart even just to get a loss-leader... http://www.walmartmovie.com/

I highly doubt this will happen on the basis that Apple predictions and speculation rarely come true. A lot of these rumors catch because there on some level they make sense as strategy (at least on the surface). Yes, the Walmart demographic is considered low income, but that isn't the worst market. Whether or not people live beyond their needs isn't Apple's concern. The concern will be on the credit card companies. Low income purchasers are concerned with the short term costs. The phone being $99 dollars? Great entry-level cost. Apps, movies, and music are priced relatively low enough as single purchases. The only difficult obstacle would be the expensive plan, which is really AT&T's thing.

Although, "bargain" isn't really Apple's game, so I call BS on this one. Apple hasn't really made lower cost alternatives to its product lines before, it probably won't now. The iPod (excluding the featureless and semi-pointless Shuffle) is still an expensive digital music player and it manages to sell well. So if they're going to sell the iPhone at Wal-Mart, they might as well sell the 8GB and 16GB models. People will still buy them even if they can't afford them.

Even the 1st Gen was an extra 20.00 for the data plan. So saving 100.00 to get a low storage, slow iPhone is not a smart deal. The min cost is over 70.00 a month so you would think the little savings on a "low cost" iPhone is not good. Plus, how well would walmart handle the setting up the of the phone? The only thing I can see walmart selling is a discounted iPhone gift card.

this source doesn't seem very reliable...due to the fact that apple doesn't make a 4gb iphone anymore...the only ones that can be purchased are 8gb and 16gb

This all depends on the market strategy. It may be a great time for all parties to make a move like this. Undoubtedly all parties are worried about the effects of the economy and the clock is ticking on AT&T exclusivity contract. This maximizes the remaining time on the contract, while satisfying a pent up demand.

Walmart sales are increasing (year over year overall and same store) when most other retailers are hurting. Additionally Walmart has been working move "upscale" for a long time. Look at some of the online offerings, higher end jewelry and electronics than what is usually found in the store. Taken together, this is a prime time to get those folks who normally never shopped at Walmart to become repeat customers and further erode Target's market share in this down market.

I doubt apple is too concerned about driving traffic away from its stores. There are simply so many more Walmarts than Apple stores. The sales volume alone would justify any cannibalizing of Apple store sales. Besides, people still have to go the the Genius bar to get the phone fixed when and if it goes down.

AT&T wins by signing up a whole new batch of customers to get the cheap phone. Amazingly most won't take the time to amortize the cost and realize that the $199 phone only costs you $5/mo over the life on the contract.

Apple can reclaim status of the iPhone by simply introducing an upgraded model simultaneously in exclusive colors or different bezel materials.

By lowering the entry barrier to a perceived significantly lower amount, the deal could make sense to everyone.

I don't see why no body is thinking that this wallmart version might not have 3g and just rely on edge to lower the cost. Would take out the thirty a mouth data fees

What would that means to the already crappy/overloaded AT&T 3g service, OMG

Um doesn't anyone remember the article about the iPhone being sold at sams club??? And sams club is a parent company of...

As for the "status" thing, I def know that it does have a certain "I'm cooler than you cause I have the money to buy one and can afford the ridiculous data fees" ring to it. I know my iPhone is the envy of all my verizon/sprint buddies and even random people that ask me if it's an iPhone. If it's offered at walmart, the walmart "crowd" will most certainly shy away after they learn that the cost won't be $99, it will be that + activation + data + possible deposit + monthly plan. If the majority of people that shop at walmart are lower-middle class (not my words) then I don't see them springing for an iPhone especially in this economy.