Best Buy to stock hard-to-find iPhones
Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008
The pending arrival of the iPhone 3 G in Best Buy stores across the country signals that shortages of the Apple Inc. devices are easing, analysts say.
Apple and Best Buy Co., the top U. S. electronics retail chain, announced a deal last week to sell the popular gadget in Best Buy’s 970 stores nationwide starting Sept. 7.
The move will put the iPhone for sale in towns and suburbs where it hasn’t been available and suggests that Apple is boosting its inventory for the Christmas shopping season.
“Apple wants to really move this product and really create volume for the iPhone,” said Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co. “I don’t think supply is going to be an issue unless demand is off the charts.” The iPhone 3 G, which runs on a faster network than the previous iPhone and starts at $ 199 and $ 299 with a two-year wireless plan, hit the market July 11. In the first few weeks, Apple and its U. S. wireless partner, AT&T Inc., left many would-be iPhone buyers empty-handed.
Even now, AT&T says there is a seven- to 10-day wait for people who order an iPhone 3 G from its stores. Apple’s Web site advises potential iPhone buyers to check the site after 9 p.m. to see if their Apple store has phones.
The shortages were created because Apple underestimated demand, analysts said.
Best Buy, which has experience with hot items such as video-game consoles, isn’t worried about iPhone shortages, spokesman Jeff Dudash said.
“With a popular item, demand will exceed supply,” he said. “We’ve talked to Apple. We’ve been told we will have product on our shelves on Sept. 7. We’ll do the best we can do.” Until recently, Best Buy wasn’t a place most people went for a cell phone.
Selection was limited, and the same store clerk gave advice on the new Justin Timberlake CD and a cell-phone purchase, Dudash acknowledged.
“Customers hated that,” he said.
Two years ago, Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy partnered with Britain’s CarPhone Warehouse to expand its cell-phone category and created a store-within-a store called Best Buy Mobile. Phone salesmen now receive at least 40 hours of training, and every Best Buy store has about 95 handsets for sale on as many as nine carriers, Dudash said.
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