Walmart iPhone on sale the 28th for a lot more than $99

At this point, it's clear that the $99 iPhone 3G rumor was just that: rumor. We have a letter that we believe to be authentic from a source within Walmart that says the iPhone will launch in the house that Sam built at 9am December 28th. At launch, only the 8GB ($197) and 16GB ($297) iPhone 3Gs will be available with a required signature on a 2-year AT&T contract. An internal pilot program kicks off today at 488 stores across the nation. The iPhone 3G and a sack of garden manure all under the same roof... heaven.

[Capt. Obvious @ Dec 17th 2008 4:09AM]

Someone gotta impatient and clicked post twice :)

[dcoaster @ Dec 17th 2008 8:27AM]

Thank you, Captain Obvious....

[B3astofthe3ast @ Dec 17th 2008 4:10AM]

LOL @ NDA in letter....

[KidStallyn @ Dec 17th 2008 10:07AM]

That NDA is hilarious. Really stopped them from getting that policy letter out!

[advs89 @ Dec 17th 2008 8:14PM]

If I were the guy sending out the letters, I'd send out the same letter to every store, except have one unique word in each letter and keep track of which store got which unique word. For instance, change "properly" to "correctly" or "right" or "ok," etc. (actually, you might have to change the order of stuff - you'd probably run out of synonyms) That way, corporate would know which general manager leaked the details. Then I would fire him.

If you're too obvious, it'll still get leaked, but with the signal redacted...

[Cordis @ Dec 18th 2008 1:41AM]

advs89: You must be quite the linguist if you can come up with 488 synonyms for the word "properly!"

[iamfeelingitchy @ Dec 17th 2008 4:37AM]

What is the point of this? What exactly are WalMart and Apple testing with this "pilot" program?

- They are only selling to WalMart employees.
- Those employees are being selected in a raffle.
- "Winning" the raffle gives said employes the privilage of paying the same for an iPhone as if they walked into their local ATT or Apple store.

So as a pilot program, this is stupid.

Better still though - what does Apple have to gain from this? The iPhone is readily available at any ATT store and any area where ATT has deployed 3G is silly with ATT or Apple retail outlets. WalMart makes sense if Apple/ATT are going after customers in more rural areas where ATT/Apple retailers don't exist... but is gaining access to that market worth sullying the iPhone brand with the notoriously low market WalMart brand?

I am sure Apple's blue chip marketing and branding experts thought long and hard about that question, but I would love to hear their logic.

[KarlW @ Dec 17th 2008 4:57AM]

Those rural markets probably don't have 3G coverage anyway

[Patriks7 @ Dec 17th 2008 5:14AM]

"- "Winning" the raffle gives said employes the privilage of paying the same for an iPhone as if they walked into their local ATT or Apple store."
WRONG! They save $2!

[Anthony @ Dec 17th 2008 7:23AM]

lol u jus got dicked!!!

i love how you get a WHOPPING... 2dollar discount (wtf?!?)

not even the yellow smiley face can make the apple smile big enough to drop prices....until the bill comes of course ;]

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 17th 2008 7:59AM]

You save 2 dollars here, you go to the dollar store, you can buy something else! Be a man, do the right thing!

[oneMadRssn @ Dec 17th 2008 9:59AM]

saving 2 dollars just like that is insulting. charging the normal price and including a 2 dollar gift card to the app store would be less insulting.

i would spite wallmart and buy it somewhere else anyway.

[Pedro Vera @ Dec 17th 2008 10:16AM]

The trial is for the logistics of moving these small, expensive items to hundreds of stores across the country. This is basically a dry run, and I am positive it won't be hard to find five employees per store willing to pick these up, especially since they get a discount.

[Mark @ Dec 17th 2008 12:13PM]

It's walmart so the customer will save $4 if they buy the multipacks. It's going to be located right next to the 3-pack of Timecop for $18.

[Sean @ Dec 17th 2008 11:13AM]

It's just the make sure all the systems are working so that when the real launch comes they won't have problems like, oh, say... Apple stores and AT&T stores.

[aj_robins @ Dec 17th 2008 11:31AM]

This is hilarious.

All stores "must" sell all five phones??? What if they can't find five employees willing to buy one? Are they going to force people to buy one, or else?

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 17th 2008 4:29PM]

I was wondering if I missed something and re-read it like three times.. Do they think their employees are all stupid as hell? I cannot believe they are taking the time to raffle off the "privilege" of buying an iPhone for regular price??? Did the idiot mangers think these are discounted?

[shugg @ Dec 17th 2008 7:11PM]

this could only help apple.,some people never go into att store,or best buy or have never seen apple store.,.,.

[VanillaSpice @ Dec 17th 2008 7:57PM]

Raffles are just a means of selection. They do not necessarily choose "winners" nor award prizes, boons or rights. They can be used to choose a person to receive something good, something bad, or something neither good nor bad.

If you read the letter, it does not at any point suggest that those selected by the raffle are lucky, are being given a right, are winners, or anything else positive. Go on, read it - it simply does not anywhere suggest that those selected by the raffle are winning anything.

That is being read into it by you lot, your Apple-hate makes you think, "oh, they said, 'raffle', so they must think the people selected are 'winners' !" but if you look at the letter without bias it is abundantly clear that Wal-Mart thinks the people selected are "the purchasers", not "winners".

[pika2000 @ Dec 17th 2008 4:48AM]

I don't get it. All this just to save $2? AT&T is selling refurbished iPhones for cheaper. I mean, do you really want to go to Walmart just to save $2 on an iPhone? The only notable part is the 15% discount on the plan for employees.

[pixelate @ Dec 17th 2008 5:41AM]

The creepy flying smiley face put a lot of hard work into knocking that $2 off the pricing sign. Let's show a little consideration.

[Galley @ Dec 17th 2008 7:25AM]

It's sad, but some folks will sell their soul for a measly $2.

[Carl @ Dec 17th 2008 8:22AM]

Actually they arn't really refurbished. Just slightly used.

[Atanas Boev @ Dec 17th 2008 8:32AM]

"Each store must sell all five iPhones during the pilot", so employees don't actually "win" anything.

The store manager will be like "Buy an iPhone, or else!".

[Stefan @ Dec 17th 2008 4:51AM]

lol, whats up with this line?

"Each store must sell all five iPhones during the pilot."

What if there arent any employees who want to purchase an iPhone, or what if all of those interested already bought an iPhone from Apple/ATT? They _must_ sell them?

[Ian @ Dec 17th 2008 4:58AM]

It's fake. A lot of clues. First, it sounds like it was written by a high school student. Second, why is five in "Five iPhones" capitalized? Third, what extremely short name is blacked out? "Al?" And WTF is a "turn on date?" LOL

[skoochy @ Dec 17th 2008 5:05AM]

This was allegedly written by a store employee, not from corporate. Do you expect people who work at a Walmart store to have perfect grammar? People who respond to Engadget blog entries rarely have perfect grammar, and the people who actually write for Engadget usually don't post with perfect grammar.

[skoochy @ Dec 17th 2008 5:07AM]

p.s. that was @Ian.

[Ian @ Dec 17th 2008 5:11AM]

@skoochy Yeah, I get it, but it doesn't say it's written by a store employee in the article, and if so, who cares. Show me something from corporate, with some credibility.

[ben @ Dec 17th 2008 8:14AM]

ffs, Engadget editors can't even spell things right: "manurer".

[Ian @ Dec 17th 2008 4:53AM]

This looks soooo fake. Grammatical errors, and lots of them.

[musback @ Dec 17th 2008 10:24AM]

I Don't care if it's fake or not, I'm just so incredibly amazed this earns a news-bulletin at engadget! I mean wtf! I've heard a few times this site was apple-fanboy-ish but puh-leaze! If they continue like this, i might bail out... Not everybody jacks off on his iPhone...

[cwild @ Dec 17th 2008 4:57AM]

manure****

[)ROFL( @ Dec 17th 2008 5:04AM]

"Each pilot store will conduct a raffle to determine which five employees will purchase the iPhones." & "Each store must SELL all five iPhones during the pilot."

So are they basically forcing their employees to buy the phones?

[)ROFL( @ Dec 17th 2008 5:05AM]

Oh wait.. never mind.

[skoochy @ Dec 17th 2008 5:09AM]

As pointed out elsewhere, maybe the $99 iPhone will be the nano that may be announced at MacWorld. Selling the 8GB and 16GB will get them ready for the rush of the new model, if it really comes out.

[Maztec @ Dec 17th 2008 5:09AM]

A little respect for an NDA perhaps? Yeesh.

[m1ku5 @ Dec 17th 2008 5:15AM]

wheres the fun in that? :)

[chickenator @ Dec 17th 2008 5:33AM]

NDA is overrated nowadays

[MrGutts @ Dec 17th 2008 6:18AM]

If that letter was just handed to a employee they have the right to not accept it. It's a agreement/contract between two persons, not one company handing out a bunch of NDA flyers and telling the employee you will agree to this or else.

Knowing Walmart they handed it to some 16/17 year old employee that can't sign or even agree to a NDA in the first place.

[Danbo @ Dec 17th 2008 5:51AM]

What's the monthly contract with these? Only asking, because O2 here in the UK currently offer the 8gig model for £99 ($152) with an 18 month contract of £30 ($46) a month. So I don't really understand what's so great about this deal, unless the per month payment is a lot less in the US?

[Jenny @ Dec 17th 2008 7:41AM]

I've never actually checked, I just knew it was ridiculous. Now I know:

Data plan is $30/month

-then add-
Cell phone plan options:
Nation Unlimited $99.99/month
Nation 1350 w/Rollover® Minutes $79.99/month
Nation 900 w/Rollover® Minutes $59.99/month
Nation 450 w/Rollover® Minutes $39.99/month

-want to text?-
Choose from:
Unlimited $20
1500/month $15
200/month $5
$.20 each

You can get out for $69.99 a month if you never practically never talk on your phone or text.

[Frankfurter @ Dec 17th 2008 8:26AM]

@Danbo, nobody cares about the UK. Shut up.

@Jenny - thanks for rehashing the math for the 349,003,374th time. We get it. They're costly to own. You keep using your RAZR and don't worry about the rest of us. Of course, the other ten million iPhone users could be the dummies, and YOU are the wise one. But I doubt it.

[JerkfacedFed @ Dec 17th 2008 9:18AM]

@frankfurter

you are the reason i hate everything apple and all the f***ots who use their products. all a bunch of smug ***holes

[Surur @ Dec 17th 2008 9:36AM]

With almost 7 billion people in the world, its quite easy for 10 million people to be dummies. The odds of you being stupider than average is about 50:50, but given you own an iPhone I would estimate even higher.

[Valkor @ Dec 17th 2008 6:55AM]

In my best Seinfeld voice: Hold a raffle... to PAY for an Iphone.... Yea that's what I want.

[chefgon_ign @ Dec 17th 2008 6:57AM]

I love how no provision is made for the possibility that there aren't five store employees who want to purchase a $200 phone and sign a 2 year contract THIS WEEK. There is literally no discount here (no, $2 on the price of the phone doesn't count) because the 15% discount is available to all Wal Mart employees at all times, not just for iPhones purchased at the store.

If I was making $7 an hour at Wal Mart during a recession, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be spending $200 on a cell phone right now.

[jeff from japan @ Dec 17th 2008 7:24AM]

What do you bet that the number of stores (488 in this case) is actually a unique number given to each either a) associate, or b) store - so that the apple/att could see who leaked the story.

[Jenny @ Dec 17th 2008 7:32AM]

Wait, wait.. Wal-Mart employees can afford iPhones?

[Nate @ Dec 17th 2008 9:00PM]

Yes, some of them can "Jenny." Some of them, i.e. myself, make damn close to $12/hour.

Seriously people, this "ohhhh noes, Wal-Mart is gonna sell the iPhone and this is bad because their employees are all underpaid and stupid!" attitude is getting a little old.