{"id":783,"date":"2008-12-08T17:57:42","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T00:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/?p=783"},"modified":"2008-12-09T18:17:09","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T01:17:09","slug":"wal-mart-to-sell-the-iphone-maybe-and-if-so-what-would-that-be-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/wal-mart-to-sell-the-iphone-maybe-and-if-so-what-would-that-be-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Wal-mart to sell the iPhone – Maybe, and if so, what would that be like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So this just came across the AP wire..<\/a><\/p>\n

A Wal-Mart employee in Uniondale, N.Y., told The Associated Press on Monday that the store will start selling Apple’s iPhone, confirming media reports over the weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n

The employee, who would not give his name, did not know when the phones would go on sale, and said the store had no merchandise yet. The San Jose Mercury News reported late Friday that store employees in California said the phone would be on sale by the last week of December, and maybe before Christmas.<\/em><\/p>\n

What would it be like to buy an iPhone in Wal-mart?\u00a0 Does that mean that you still need to have the phone activated when you buy it?\u00a0 If so, who is going to do it?\u00a0 The Wal-mart workers?\u00a0 ehh.. no.\u00a0 That is asking for customer service trouble.<\/p>\n

What if Apple supplied a specialist per store?\u00a0 Well, that could work, but is it worth it?\u00a0 Do you really think there are enough people who are looking to buy an iPhone to go to Wal-mart to make it worth staffing those stores?<\/p>\n

What if Apple sells the iPhone as devices like they did with the first version?\u00a0 Ahh.. that might make more sense. So if we are to believe the rumors then we could see a reversal of Apple’s ‘buy turned on’ only policy.<\/p>\n

There is one other thought though.\u00a0 Each phone’s firmware is already locked to a phone number and sim such that you cannot do anything BUT buy an AT&T account.\u00a0 In fact, it would make sense that it’s already in the contract. But still…ehh, a lot of work to serve a population that would mostly have access to ATT stores or Apple stores.<\/p>\n

We’ll know soon.\u00a0 Should be interesting.<\/p>\n

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