Confirming reports from last week, sources at Wal-Mart told Bloomberg News that Apple’s popular iPhone device will indeed become available at the discount retail chain following the holiday season. The price of the device, however, remains in dispute.
Five different employees at stores in California told the news service that two versions of the phones will arrive in stores by the end of the month and that employees are currently being trained in them.
It is uncertain which versions of the device will be sold, or at what price. Currently, at Apple Store, AT&T and Best Buy locations, 8GB and 16GB denominations are offered for $199 and $299, respectively.
Rumors on technology blogs last week implied that Wal-Mart would be selling a 4GB version for $99, but that was not confirmed in the Bloomberg report, and
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/12/08/anatomy-of-a-rumor-wal-marts-99-iphone/”>appears to have been debunked.
No reason to offer a cheaper iPhone. Apple’s "in" is that the iPhone will be available at Walmart, where the iPod has been offered for quite some time.
Betting against the iPhone is like trying to swim against a rip tide. The only people who’ve tried to do so are no longer around to tell their story.