Filed under: Retail, Rumors, iPhone
BGR: Walmart to sell $99 iPhone?
Your source for all iPhone-slash-Walmart news, BoyGeniusReport, has a whopper for you: Walmart might offer the 4GB iPhone for $99 when they start selling the handsets after Christmas.
Even they're skeptical, though: Their tipster isn't one of their regulars, and so they can't say with any certainty that it will come to pass.
The discount makes sense, in a way. Selling the low-end iPhone at a ridiculous price will turn it into the new Motorola RAZR. Apple would love everyone in the country to own one, I'm sure. It's not clear who will eat the discount, though -- Apple, AT&T, or Walmart -- but my guess is that it's mostly Apple. Apple has other revenue streams for the iPhone, such as the App Store and iTunes, and AT&T still has its spendy two-year contract. If this is what Apple needs to do to make this the ubiquitous handset to have, then it may be worth the cost to them.
On the other hand, as many commenters at BGR have pointed out, with ubiquity comes rejection. Suddenly, the iPhone isn't the cool status symbol to have anymore. This doesn't bother me one bit, but to some people -- for whatever reason -- it's important to them. (I have special names for those people.) Nevertheless -- will it impact sales? How much is the "hip" coefficient driving purchases?
In any event, consider this one of those situations where the Internet is writing checks that Walmart's butt might not be able to cash. But pretty sweet if it does.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ack154 said 12:15PM on 12-04-2008
Definitely agree on some people shunning it for it's loss of "status" but it wouldn't change my views much at all. I'll still be getting one in May when my Helio contract is up. Every time I use my iPod Touch I wish it were an iPhone so I could do more with it. Has nothing to do with my potential "status."
That said, I doubt I'd get it from Walmart if it's just a 4 gb version. My 8 gb Touch is a good size, but I'd never go lower.
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doug said 5:47PM on 12-04-2008
If true and apple is planning deep discounting, it means they have something else coming for sure. the current model may become the low end model and they may offer a higher end model with better camera, video recording, etc. I have a first gen model and held off from the 3G model since it offered only 3G and GPS, but basically the same everything else. I am looking forward to something that will allow video recording. I would also welcome some sort of tablet with iphone features.
josh said 12:21PM on 12-04-2008
Really? Come on people, this will never happen. If Apple was going to sell the iPhone for $99 they would have lowered the price 2 months ago and it would not be sold at this price only at Wal-Mart. How can Apple expect to make the iPhone as ubiquitous as the RAZR by selling it so low at only one store? And why would Apple want to drive traffic away from its own retail stores to Wal-Mart? If this does happen it will be without Apple's blessing and Apple will most certainly not be eating the cost. But it's not going to happen.
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Zoroaster said 9:19PM on 12-04-2008
My sentiments exactly. If apple was eating the cost why would they only do so at Walmart? It doesn't make any sense. If walmart eats the cost they'll be losing a crapload of money for no reason. The only thing that would make any sense would be if ATT was eating the cost, since they'll still make money from the contracts, but then they would sell them at the lower price in their own stores and not at Walmart.
And while its true that apple probably isn't trying to artificially limit their customer base to bolster its "cool factor", they also generally don't care about market share. They are not the type of company to slash prices to compete with lower-quality products. That's just not how they role. If that's the kind of thing they were interested in then macbooks would be 700 bucks. As it is the iphone is selling well and their market share is growing. They'd be fools to lower the price now, unless there was a new product in the wings. But even then, 99$? come on. I wish this were plausible but its not.
JC said 12:22PM on 12-04-2008
When the iphone first came out, it was around 600 usd, people then would consider themselves to be "special" simply because it was a phone that everyone envied to have. Now it's not that big of a deal anymore if wal-mart plans on releasing a 99 usd iphone. I hope apple makes a better iphone, one that integrates and atom powered cpu and some hardcore nvidia gpum
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Gregg said 12:51PM on 12-04-2008
There's no way this will happen. Apple wouldn't stoop to Walmart's level in price chopping and creating a specific model. You think the "Walmart" crowd can afford a $30+ a month Data Plan in addition to their family plan?
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Bryan said 1:06PM on 12-04-2008
lol.. "Walmart" crowd
..like they're poor because they don't shop at Target or Publix?
robogobo said 5:09PM on 12-04-2008
Bryan hasn't been to Walmart lately.
Jose said 5:59PM on 12-04-2008
Walmart carries enough to attract the right crowd... Look at those Vizio TVs, etc. And Dell has a micro-store now at Walmart.
Odog4ever said 1:45PM on 12-05-2008
Robogobo hasn't taken a look at the economy lately. There are luxury cars in the Walmar/Sam Club parking lot...
Michael said 1:00PM on 12-04-2008
If people are worried about the iphone losing its "cool status" because everyone will have it then those people have bigger issues at hand that they should be worried about like being pretentious or dealing with self confidence.
Anyway many people have the iphone already.
Fortunately for the pretentious people they can keep their "cool status" by turning around and saying "Oh, it's only a 4GB from Walmart".
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Caitlin said 1:02PM on 12-04-2008
There's a 4GB version still out?
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dizzy said 1:25PM on 12-04-2008
I give it a 50/50 chance of even being sold at Walmart since they do sell the iPods now, but we will NEVER see a 4GB model of the iPhone. I think the only way apple will fill in the price umbrella would be to introduce a 32GB iPhone (maybe late January) and then shave $100 off the price of the 16GB and 8GB model.
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Phillip Howell said 1:29PM on 12-04-2008
... will turn it into the new Motorola RAZR.
Why is this seen as a good thing? Motorola's price-chopping of the RAZR is one of the (many) things that led to their current state, which is. . . not so good.
This sounds like such an un-Apple-like move.
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colouroflight said 1:33PM on 12-04-2008
More riff-raff in the tent. Better get a white one if you want to stand out.
(I don't have one yet since it would cost $500 under AT&T's ridiculous upgrade policies)
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tony d said 1:36PM on 12-04-2008
Great, another stampede at Wal-Mart.
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Jamus said 2:31PM on 12-04-2008
$99 iPhone sounds great, but that $70 a month bill afterwards keep me from getting one.
I would gladly pay the $199 if I could slip a Go Phone card in it somehow. I don't talk on the phone much, but would like all the other features (which is why I have a Touch now).
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h0mi said 3:12PM on 12-04-2008
"Suddenly, the iPhone isn't the cool status symbol to have anymore. "
has this hurt ipod sales? Anyone? Seriously....
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Pete said 3:13PM on 12-04-2008
AT&T liquidated their old 1st gen iPhones to managers for as little as 50 bucks (for a refurbished 4gb). I wouldn't be surprised to see first gen iPhones available to the public for 100 bucks, but there are only so many left, so it'd be a limited offering. We'll see what happens.
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chuck said 3:50PM on 12-04-2008
you'd think for an idea like that, they would end up in a costco, not walmart...