The $99 iPhone appears – from AT&T!
There was a great deal of speculation last week about the possibility of a $99 iPhone when Wal-Mart got into the market. That didn’t happen. Now, there is a $99 iPhone, but it’s from AT&T!
The general rumor last week was that the giant discount retailer would come out of the box with a new low-end 4GB iPhone selling at the unprecedented discount price of $99. That did not happen in reality, of course, and in fact Wal-Mart’s pricing scheme came out of the gate with lesser discounts than electronics retailer Best Buy is offering on the same products. Wal-Mart might be leading apple to a new group of discount-oriented customers, but the price of the iPhone is not really being discounted very far.
But now another big player in the iPhone marketplace really does have a $99 iPhone. According to a Computerworld blog, though, the phone is refurbished and will be sold through AT&T, the network provider of choice for the iPhone. These phones are refurbished by Apple, are of the 8GB flavor, and will indeed sell for either $99 or $100. Best of all they are 3G models!
Exactly what is a “refurbished” iPhone? Accoording to AT&T it is a “previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period. Each refurbished phone is independently quality tested and loaded with the latest software to meet current factory standards. Some refurbished iPhone 3G devices will have minor scratches. Refurbished iPhone 3G devices carry a warranty of 90 days or more. For details about the warranty on your refurbished iPhone 3G go to www.apple.com/support/oss/.”
Likely, these phones will already gone by the time you have read this. They were only due to be on sale until supplies ran out, and they certainly will not last long. Still, it is nice to see an iPhone rumor come to fruition, even if it does not happen exactly as predicted. Now we’ll see if that rumor of a new 32GB to be introduced at MacWorld comes true…
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