Wal-Mart to sell 512MB Apple iPhone for $12
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 16:19iPhone activation will also require a lifetime contract.
Recent reports indicate that Wal-Mart’s 4,000 stores will begin selling a 512MB version of the iPhone for just $12 starting the day after Christmas, December 26 — also known as Return All the Crap You Got the Day Before Day and Boxing Day.
This new, low priced iPhone will have just enough storage space for the iPhone’s system software, seven songs and Enigmo.
According to training material given to some Wal-Mart employees, those who wish to purchase the 512MB iPhone (or “iPhone 512″ as it’s referred to in the training materials) will also have to agree to a lifetime contract with AT&T. Fortunately, a data plan is not required since there’s not really that much room to download anything to the Wal-Mart iPhone.
Those not wishing to sign a lifetime contract can get the 512MB iPhone for $499.
Some are concerned iPhones being sold at Wal-Mart will tarnish the device’s “mystique”.
“People that go to Wal-Mart are conservatives. People that buy iPhones are liberals,” said CNBC’s Brett Jeer. “People that go to Wal-Mart are poor. People that buy iPhones are rich. People that go to Wal-Mart love guns. People that buy iPhones love socialism. How can the two mix?”
There are similarities, though. Both Wal-Mart and Apple have a “my way or the highway” attitude. Wal-Mart shoppers like to purchase everything from a single location while Apple shoppers like to buy every piece of electronics they possibly can only from Apple.
Getting the iPhone in front of more people can’t be anything but good for Apple. If each one of Wal-Mart’s stores were to sell 2,500 iPhones between December 26 and December 31, that would double Apple’s cell phone market share by the end of the year.
The iPhones at Wal-Mart move could also be a “trojan horse” for getting more Apple products into Wal-Mart stores, such as Macs. If this trend of Apple offering lower end products at Wal-Mart stores continues, we can expect to see:
- MacBooks made from plastic instead of aluminum (or hydrogen)
- iMacs without monitors
- Mac mini’s without harddrives
- Apple TV’s without a “TV out” port
- Mac Pro’s without cooling fans
- iPods that only come in “Wal-Mart Blue”
No word on whether other locations, such as Best Buy, will begin selling the 512MB iPhone as well.
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