And now for the irony: it'll be no better a buy than what you can find at ye olde Apple or AT&T store. Best Buy officially becomes the first third-party retailer in the US to sell the iPhone in an official capacity -- 3G or otherwise -- when it launches the
iPhone 3G in some 970 stores plus an additional 18 dedicated Mobile locations on September 7 for the same $199 and $299 price points found elsewhere. Quoth Best Buy Mobile's CEO, "We had a lot of work to do, obviously, to get in a position where Apple and AT&T
would feel good about Best Buy Mobile carrying it, and that's what we've done in the last 18 months." In other words, this has been a pretty persistent effort to score the third-party exclusive essentially since the original model was announced, and it's just now paying off. There's no indication on how the addition of Best Buy to the US sales mix will affect production or distribution, but at least there'll be one more place to try to find some frickin' stock.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted Aug 12th 2008 11:21PM
I wonder how much Best Buy would have to pay for that advertising space if this wasn't news.
I wonder how much _apple_ would have paid for that marketing space if it werent'... oh wait...
Nevermind.
i dont get it. apple has a hard enough time trying to stock its own stores with iphones, and yet they are releasing it in like 20 more countries this month. and now best buy is going to sell it.
I'd bet they have plenty in stock and are just holding out, likely so they can stock these new locations.
@Colin. That's lame. Apple may be about marketing Buzz, but Peter Oppenheimer is not stupid. He would never allow marketing, or Steve for that matter, to reduce revenues by artificially withholding stock.
By all accounts they are making 700K to 800K a week and selling them as fast as they can build and ship them.
I agree with you Craig, why give up the big bucks now for potential later. Gadgets aren't like stocks. Where they are similar is that the hype can run out fast.
its all about generating demand. Apple stores get fresh trucks every morning. They could totally overstock, but if supply is low, and the "elites" have them, then all the schmoes will want them even more. Thus keeping the iphone 3g as the highest selling hotcake on the mobile market longer, locking in stats for the next sermon from steveo... marketing 101.
@ajf
You're assuming the iphone can be resold at a higher price and drive up demand. Apple has itghten the purchase with the contract ageements although it not full proof.
Apple has a target number of sales in a short time frame, restricting the quantity of product to meet the expectation of sales in the time frame doesn't make sense. Marketing 101 failed.
Gadgets go out of style fast. Apple would probably want to sell as many as possible before other competitors release something good like the HTC Touch Diamond.
With that supposed 800,000 manufactured iPhone units a month they should be able to keep stores stocked. Besides, so many people keep saying that the iPhone isn't really in demand, just fake demand due to short supplies. By the end of the year, Apple should only sell about 6 or 7 million iPhone 3gs so it won't be all that difficult to keep up with demand.
Oh, right, sure. Willing to bet that some of you who are arguing that it doesn't make sense for Apple to hold down production on the iPhone are the same people saying that Bezos is holding down production of the Kindle to inflate demand.... If I'm all wet, then expand your argument to say, in general economic terms, that it makes little sense for a company - any company - to hold down production and generate demand and thus buzz. If you can't do that, then STFU, please; because if Amazon would do it, so would Apple.
They've sold 3 million in one month. That's hardly limiting supply to create false demand, it's just insane demand. Apple is gonna sell way more than 6 or 7 million before the end of the year. You haters really make me laugh.
Cool. Another chance to ignore the iCrap.
If you want to ignore it, then why are you here?
I don't think you really understand the concept of "ignoring"...
Balls ? Does he look like he has one ?
:)
@Jon:
This is me ignoring your comment.
Wait... damn.
So you can buy a phone that ATT and Apple store employees had difficulty setting up, at the world's least competent electronics store? Sounds good to me.
What store have you been to where the employees are better trained? Just wondering
What store have you been to with better trained employees? I mean yea, obviously they don't know everything. But they are a HELL of a lot better then most other retailers out there
any privately owned electronics store and a few of the smaller chains
I mean we only know as much as we're taught. Plus it really depends on the store you go to. The store I work at for instance most of the employees are really well informed.
Also...there's no way we're worse than circuit city...lol
(no offense to those who work at circuit city and know what they're talking about, lol)
I like to go to Best Buy and Circuit City and Futureshop and ask the employees questions I know the answers to, to see if they're honest with me if they don't know, or if they try to bullshit me. 90% of the time they don't know and they lie.
BB is a retail outlet. Your comparison is essentially like expecting a fry cook to has as much culinary talent as a trained chef.
I work in retail, and I know a hell of a lot... but if someone asks me a question I don't have the answer to, I tell them I don't know but I can find out for them... other places they just make stuff up.
Actually, Best Buy is an authorized AT&T partner, and I bought my last 2 phones there, before the iPhone. It was a better experience than the AT&T store. They had better prices on the Samsung phones too.
I'm not a big fan of Best Buy, but this is something they actually do pretty well. Just don't ask them to detail the features of the phone...
I can has culinary talent?
"So you can buy a phone that ATT and Apple store employees had difficulty setting up, at the world's least competent electronics store?"
Well, it's a little unfair to say that the employees had difficulty setting the phone up. When iTunes crashes, what is one to do?
Thank you for making this giant picture of my two worst enemies.
Who aren't your enemies then? Microsoft? Linux? Circuit city? Amazon.com?
Bet Dillon likes CompUSA and Palm
I think Dillon's a Circuit City Blood (company color red), so he hates Best Buy Crips (company color blue). The Firedog and Geek Squad employees bust drive-bys at each other's shopping centers in their Mini Coopers. "Brace yoselfs. Fiyadawg, mutha fuckas!" *Pop, pop, pop*
That's all I can muster as possible scenarios/reasoning for actually personifying a retailer an enemy. As for the iPhone being an enemy, I really have no fucking idea. Maybe an iPhone killed his baby's momma.
Is it really a "best buy" if its just normal retail price?
How original of you.
yes, because if no one sells it below retail, retail price IS the best buy.
rofl
This is awesome! While I really dislike apple, this will really help drive sales to the store.
Yeah, it's always good to see the little guys get a boost.
Hahaha... yeah, honestly man, what the fuck are you talking about?!
Uh, it'll help drive sales to my store?
"my" and "the"
The use of one of those and not the other can really change the context of your sentence.
NOW I get it.
I'm glad.
Personally, I hate cell phone stores, but I really like Best Buy and Circuit City in store cell phone services. It's just more convienient to find accessories a little beyond cell phones like headphones, memory cards, screen protectors, etc. Also, i find cell phone stores a little intimidating as the salespersons jumps right on top of you as soon as you walk through the door. sheesh.
@icepop4who
What cell phone stores have you been going into? Where I am from you almost have to go in there with a bear trap to get a hold of an associate long enough to get a basic question answered. That or you have to put your name down on a wait list at the door.
Well when that big intimidating sales person comes up to you at the AT&T store and says the scary "May I help you" line...stand strong and say "No. Just looking."
I know. I used to have the same fear, then I learned how to say that...been smooth sailing ever since then.
Didn't BoyGenius call this one happening a good while back like a month and a half ago. Looks like it ended up being true.
Attempting to care.....
Care not found.
Do they cross sell MONSTER iPod cables for better data transfer quality?
good...maybe all of the sales people will be so busy "helping" people w/ the iphone then they'll leave me the hell alone! I sometimes go to best buy once or twice a week....these people HAVE to recognize me by now! I NEVER need their opinion yet they always have to ask....I sometimes leave w/out buying the product I intended to buy just because I get so annoyed! You cant round a corner w/out a blue shirt bothering you...sometimes they step right in front of you to ask if you need anything while youre clearly moving from one dept to another....its sad when they ask if they can help and I have to say that they can help by getting out of my way!
DAMN THEM AND THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! DAMN THEM TO HELL!!!!!!
We have to. Trust me, we have to. At some point it is ridiculous. Do they bother you about credit cards?
I recommend you complain to a manager. If you were coming to my store, THAT would make my day.
This is one of the dumbest comments I've read in quite a while. Lets guess you're also the person who gets annoyed when a waiter asks you what you'd like to order at a restaurant. If you are so "annoyed" by people doing what their paid to do, maybe you shouldn't frequent their establishment so much, and do some online shopping.
Heres the secret: headphones. If I ever go shopping I listen to music. They dont waste their time "helping" you when you have headphones on and if they try, you just act like you cant hear them.
dBs : Thats a great idea! I have done that before...maybe I gotta do it more often haha
BarryBee I dont get annoyed @ someone trying to help, I get annoyed when I feel like Im being stalked! Its kind of ironic that I cant walk 5 feet in that store w/out being hassled, yet if Im buying a computer or something that I need help with (aka someone has to get it from the back of the store) then there seems to be no one around! I cant be the only one who feels this way.... it sounds like rTwelve [xbl:chilblane] works there and admits that it can be too much sometimes....r12...funny you mentioned the credit card thing....i cant even make this crap up its too funny...I went to best buy 2 weeks ago...i was just messing w/ a laptop and a girl came up to me...i think she mustve been in love or something because she drew a blank and forgot her sales pitch....I think she was trying to ask me in a clever way if I had or wanted a best buy credit card (yes I do have one) instead, what came out of her mouth went like this.... (me playing w/ laptop) her: "do you know that if you wanted to buy that today you could use your best buy credit card?" (me : yeah...puzzled look on my face) her: embarrassed and walked away. I wanted to say thanks captain obvious can I pay with cash or debit also? but I didnt want to hurt her feelings haha
Maybe youd be willing to be a guinea pig and wear a t-shirt where youve written on it "No, I dont need assistance!"
Either I bother you and annoy you, or I get yelled at. What do you think I'm gonna choose? Believe me, we don't want to help you. I believe the average human is capable of finding someone in the uniform and asking for assistance if they need it. But nope, we have to help. The company policy is actually that you're supposed to help anyone within 30 feet or 10 seconds of you. Or 10 feet and 30 seconds. Something like that. I never really paid attention to it.
And dbs, you're right, headphones do work. So does a cell phone. If I see someone with either of those, I figure they are busy/don't want help and I ignore them. And we actually had a guy ask for a piece of paper once and put signs on his front and back saying he didn't want help.
When we used to be required to ask for your name, I got some people who asked me why. I didn't give them some company BS about "wanting to be your smart friend". I told them the truth: we're required to.
@egloskerry:
Yea, I know it works. Ive been working customer service jobs (with a factory job and some deli for good measure) since I was 14 and Im 25 now so I know that they work XD
egloskerry : thanks for the insight...it makes alot more sense now....I dont want anyone to get the wrong idea, Im never rude to the sales people, (that get out of my way comment was a joke) I know theyre just doing their jobs....I just happen to live in an area (phoenix) where we have several best buys within miles of each other and they just seem to have WAY too many people working there..In this economy I can see why management would want to make sure the few people in the stores are actually buying something before they leave....
I'd love to have the labor your stores are getting. Try a single computers associate on a saturday night. Yeah, it's happened. Or two HT associates most weekends. Or no one opening or closing cameras and car audio every day.
Actually that new labor system we've picked up has pretty much shot everything to hell here
Best Buy Mobile can has iPhone? Yes, yes you can!
i findz yer grammur dizterbinglee cureckt fur a lul kat
Sorry for the question, but I don't know where to ask them.
If I where to buy the iPhone from Best Buy, would I need to be an existing customer of AT&T? Or can I sign up there for an account? Im really confused of how this whole iPhone activiation works also. =(
Best Buy Mobile can do anything and everything an ATT store can do, so they could set up service for you
I found out about this before Engadget posted it. I feel proud. :D I'm glad they'll be able to sell even more iPhone 3G's. I thought Apple was going to leave it exclusive to AT&T Stores and Apple stores but I was wrong. I love my iPhone 3G and am glad that more people can get one.
Buy on the rumor, sell on the news.
How nice if UNLOCKED iphone will be sold here...
I think that it says the pricepoints will be the same pretty much make it clear that that is pie-in-the-sky dreaming.
So is it just like Best Buy will start carrying the AT&T ones, and still locked? In that case that's kind of pointless.
Aftermarket only up 2.5% but it has had a good run for last week.
I'm 'out' at $200
this couldn't come at a more perfect time. I just took a drug test yesterday cause I got hired at the local best buy.
I suppose this deal has something to do with best buy having non commission sales. Good for them. Keep it put of mall kiosks, please.
I know people don't like best buy cause if you come within ten feet of someone they HAVE to contact you. If you don't like being asked if you need help, shop online.
This will be good for me. I kinda saw it coming to third party locations, but I didn't call another exclusivity deal.
And now the Geeksquad can charge you 199.99 to pretend to remove viruses and spyware off your iphone too.
$29.99 for Geek Squad Email Setup so you can walk out working!
oh, only 29.99 to do something that people with smart phones should already know how to do? What a deal!!
or take 2 minutes to do it yourself... unless you're paid $900 an hour, that is a much cheaper way to go.
I hear sheep....
That's just because you're still at the farm.
No, he hears sheep because Madden 09 came out today. Baaaaaaaaa! Bretttt isss a Jettt! Baaaaaaaa!
WOOOOO!!!! MADDEN!!!!
Best Buy might have cried and complained to Apple, saying that they deserve a shot at the iPhone since they sell other Apple products. And if crying and complaining didn't work, maybe they threatened Apple with removal of all Apple product?
Best Buy gives Apple and AT&T a larger footprint.
I think the big rush of people who really wanted iPhones got theirs. Now the dust has settled, the volume will be high, but not nearly as high as the first month. You will see a lot of people who will wait until their contract is up before switching to the iPhone. By next year, the number of iPhones sold should be staggering.
Frankly, I want to know if Best Buy is going to sell an extended warranty on the iPhone? How many people will be stupid enough to believe that Best Buy will actually do something with the phone after the Apple Warranty is over, or just try to screw the consumer?
Lastly, I want to meet the first person who actually manages to receive good service from Best Buy during the extended warranty period.
I'm sure we will. Go buy one of the new PSPs from BBYM. Loads different from the old one that didn't cover anything except your phone spontaneously self destructing.
what? My camera fell and screen cracked got a brand new updated model! my phone started freezing a few years back got a new one without having to upgrade my contract. Then my tv stops working about a month after my 4 year warranty expired, yeah great timing, but my warranties did help me out a few times so im grateful.
If Bestbuy cells extended warranty plans in iphones, i wish i would have bought it there then instead of the apple store.
your a moron every person who comes to my store we will swap out the phone on the spot if they have a psp .. tool bag
That's Great News! Now that I've bought my 3G iPhone already, Best Buy is going to offer it. Only problem is, I can't earn any Best Buy Rewards Points because I bought it at the Apple Store!!!
Hey, wow, great.
I can just imagine taking all the professionalism of the Apple store (even if sometimes its forced because of customer expectation) and chucking it right out the window.
So if you feel that Apple employees are to nice for comfort, and even AT&T employees put you a little on edge when they occasionally get things right. Well you now have Best Buy to choose from where you can get the shopping experience that you think you deserve for being such a bad boy or girl.
Easy to stereotype, huh? All people should be forced to work a year of retail and a year of foodservice.
Best Buy stereotypes their customers! Where have you been? They have names for various customers, and they actively engage in specific tactics to extract as much money from their customers. They continuously (and annoyingly) upsell. It's terrible. They have forced their employees to beg for you to look at magazine subscriptions at the checkout. I have to say that selling paper magazine subscriptions in a supposedly high tech store like Best Buy... not classy.
As for customer service, I worked at a grocery store in high school and college. I worked a retail clothing store for a couple of years. I made the leap from peon to management. Best Buy is not in the practice of giving good customer service. They worry about profit first. Customer service is low on their priority list. In many cases, they accuse first, and ask questions later. I've seen it time and time again.
When Best Buy started putting lower prices on the web, and then wouldn't honor those prices in the store, or they would bring up their internal website and say that the website was wrong and show the "real" price? That's flat out bait-and-switch tactics, especially when they tout their price match policy! After proving that they lied in the store with their "internal" website in Richfield at their flagship store, I quit shopping at Best Buy.
Best Buy is not honest about it. Therefore I warn people about Best Buy and their shady tactics. Consumers have a right to be educated. I rarely visit the stores anymore. If I do visit, it is to buy a loss leader item and leave.
@egloskerry
Oh I've done far more then a year of food service in my lifetime. I can't say the same for retail. But I did start my IT carer doing phone support for a small company so maybe that's close enough. Having to explain what's wrong to someone that barely knows where the power button is on their computer is not easy. And once actually had to talk someone through replacing a video card that did not know what a screwdriver was.
But I digress. There's no stereotyping going on here. This is from pure experience. When I walk into Best Buy, or pretty much any other store. I've already done my homework. I know what I want or have it narrowed down to about 2 items. Ask a question about something and you will normally be hard pressed to get an answer that is right if you get an answer at all. This is because Best Buy along with the vast majority of other large chains don't hire people that know what they're doing. They hire "smiling faces". Unfortunately smiling faces seem to be a code word for people that will work for next to nothing and knows even less then they earn.
Now I don't know what employees at the Apple store make for a salary. But I did know that if I asked a question about something they sold I would get a straight answer. And when I had problems with the first phone I bought it was straightened out and two people (one being the store manager) worked on the issue. They were appoligetic and the other employees knew what I was standing around for. So I wasn't bombarded with "can I help you" ever 45 seconds.
If the same would have happened after I purchased the phone at Best Buy I'm sure I would have been so frustrated that I would not be an iPhone owner right now. I would have told them to stuff the phone and throw a party. Why can I say this? Because I've been in the situation with Best Buy before.
Can one pay cash or use a BB gift card for purchase? THAT would actually make this endeavor useful.
Sure. You can pay any way you want. We're not tightasses like ATT.
I wonder if you can use rewards toward the purchase, that would be nice. Probably not though...
Yep, you can. See, that RZ card is good for something after all.
Sure. You can pay any way you want. We're not tightasses like ATT.
^^You are an idiot. You can pay cash at ATT, you meant to say Apple, which you also can, but you have to buy an Apple gift card first.
And for people dogging on the bbym reps about not being able to activate/sell phones yet alone iphones, no worries because their ATT reps will be there to help with everything, just like they have been at apple stores this past month.
This is wonderful news for people wanting to purchase the iPhone. Having it available at BB will make it easier for consumers to purchase the best Smartphone on the market that all those "me too" companies are scrambling emulate, but continue to fail. Once the iPhones are displayed, the other inferior devices will be relegated to collecting dust in their display areas. I expect massive sales figures for the iPhone.
Please tell me how it is the best smart phone on the market?
Have you actualled had one besides the iPhone?
Or did you suddenly need a smart phone when the iPhone came out?
A bit of a 'me too' moment im guessing.
And you forget why people use smart phones...for business use, i dont see many business users jumping on this, considering it is pretty much useless compared to the Blackberry.
Well, me, I tested quite a lot of phones(nokia, samsung, sony ericson), PDA (psion, zaurus) and smartphones (blackberries, HTCs), along with the iPhone V1. And I can tell you that the iPhone kick the ass of all the phones and "smartphone" !!
Blackberry are far superior to Windows Mobile devices, that for sure, but when you want to listen to music and watch video on the same device as the one you write note on, record vocal notes, write email and SMS, the iPhone is vastly superior
And damn, synching a blackberry with a computer is HELL!...
Anyway, I like the blackberries over the iPhone for ONE thing, it's the hardware keyboard... it's especially useful for shortcuts, and you type in a way more flexible (I type fast on the iPhone, but when you want to write in a weird way, it just doesn't work lol).
But overall, I find the iPhone virtual keyboard more attractive just for typing. None to mention the screen is far biger ;)
The device is still young though (didn't test the 2.0.1 OS), and some things need to change, but really for me the other devices are not half as close to what I want.
And with the AppStore, good things just get better!
I can't wait to get my hand on the 3G :P
The stripped OSX is alot better than that Symbian shit that's been floating around for a few years
Alot better than the shoddy java support most phones have
I currently use a Macbook but my windows mobile phone is better than the iPhone. Yes ive used the iPhone and the only thing great about it was the web browser hands down owned Pocket ie. My phone can do so much more and way lower costs(without contracts), about 95% of my favorite 'apps' i get free without any type of hacking or 'breaking'. Yes i love the flexibility of my non crippled bluetooth, full blown gps, easy to use full qwerty keyboard, copy and paste, multiple programs and once and small cheap stuff like that on my tytn2. iPhone is not for everyone get it through your heads.
Honorable mention 'apps' - slingbox, logmein, WMWifirouter, live search, skyfire, Office Mobile (excel, powerpoint, word)
OH LOOK!!!! Seven Eleven to sell iPhones soon too!!!!
Just a question though... will we have to take an AT&T plan in order to leave with the iPhone (like it's supposed to be in the Apple Stores an AT&T stores), or can we just buy it and then take a plan in AT&T stores (or not) like it used to be with the iPhone V1?
I live in France and I can buy the iPhone in France, but the price is not the same AT ALL (599€ Vs 299$ for the 16GB...3x the price!), and I would have to leave my current operator, thing I don't want either....
The Question is: Do you have to activate your phone in the store!? If not, I see a big ass opportunity right here! :)
Yes. I am from Europe and occasionally have friends going over the pond.
That large yelllow ugly picture makes my eyes hurt