InternetiPhone Could Be Music to Best Buy's Ears
Apple aims to broaden its distribution channels, while the U.S. retailer becomes the first outside Apple and AT&T to carry the ultrahot device.
Source: Reuters Best Buy will be the first national retailer to sell Apple's iPhone in the United States in a partnership that could help drive sales of a device expected to be one of the hottest gadgets this holiday season. Best Buy, the leading U.S. electronics chain, will announce on Wednesday that it will sell Apple's newly launched 3G iPhone, which lets users connect to the Web at high speeds, at its 970 U.S. stores beginning on Sept. 7. About 600 stores will also showcase the handset, priced at $199 to $299, in their Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) mini-shops. Stand-alone Best Buy Mobile shops, which have opened in about 15 U.S. cities, will also sell the device, which requires a two-year contract with carrier AT&T (NYSE: T) to operate. For Apple, the broadened distribution channel could help achieve its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. It has sold the device at its smaller network of Apple shops and at AT&T retail stores, with 1 million of the new iPhones sold in their first weekend in July. AT&T has said that the current waiting period is about seven to 10 days for customers who come in its stores to buy an iPhone in advance. It expects to be able to handle same-day sales within a few weeks time. RELATED ARTICLES Jobs: iPhone Software Downloads Booming Palm's Treo 800 Presses On (iPhone Who?) iPhone Looms Over Palm's New Treo Apple Sells 1 Million New iPhones iPhone Knocking on the Enterprise For more stories... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]
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