Walmart to Discount iPhone 5 By $60 Beginning Saturday

On Saturday, Walmart will begin offering the iPhone 5 at a $60 discount (from $189 to $129) and the iPhone 4S at a $50 discount (from $89 to $39), reports Mashable. The prices are permanent, available only in-store and require signing a new 2-year contract with Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T.

We asked Walmart if the new pricing is temporary and were told that no, this is in fact the permanent price of the items. The new price is only available in Walmart stores and is not available online.

The price drop is also notable because Apple has historically limited the degree to which retailers can drop prices on its products. Although some retailers such as Walmart routinely discount items by $10, cutting the price by more than 30% (in the case of the iPhone 5) and nearly 70% (in the case of the iPhone 4S) is unprecedented.

While it is not unusual to see seasonal sales at Walmart, it is odd to see a drastic, permanent price cuts on one of Apple's devices. iPhone pricing, however, has grown increasingly competitive in recent months, which has led to significant price drops at multiple retailers. Best Buy, for example, dropped the iPhone 5 price by $50 in May and recently reintroduced a successful trade-in program to allow iPhone 4/4S users to upgrade to the iPhone 5 at no cost.

It is likely that stores are also aiming to get rid of existing inventory before the introduction of the iPhone 5S, which is expected to be announced in the fall. In recent weeks, news of Apple's upcoming refreshed iPhone has been picking up, and this morning, photos of the device itself surfaced. The iPhone 5S is expected to come equipped with an improved camera, a dual LED rear flash, and a fingerprint sensor.

Walmart's discounted iPhone pricing is set to begin this Saturday, on June 22 and will last indefinitely.

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

clickerman

43 months ago

Walmart is not clearing stock. Apple is trying to goose sales until their new products come out later this year.

Rating: 5 Votes

blitzer09x87

43 months ago

thanks but no thanks, i'll wait for the iphone 5s, but i'd say that this is a great move by apple, this would further affect the s4's dying sales.

Rating: 3 Votes

kobyh15

43 months ago

walmart is not clearing stock. Apple is trying to goose sales until their new products come out later this year.

Rating: 2 Votes

ValSalva

43 months ago

Seems a little early to be clearing stocks to get ready for the next iPhone, whatever it will be named. That's probably three months away.

But it's a great price!

Rating: 2 Votes

maxosx

43 months ago

Well it looks like Apple's run of high priced, fat margined products is waning. Good news all around.

Sooner or later people wake up to the fact that although Apple makes good products, perhaps they're not "Magical & Revolutionary" after all.

As the "Steve Jobs Effect" wears off, reality sets in.

----------

Wow. Steve fought long and hard to make Apple stores perfect, to display his creations in a way that sets them apart.

Now they are in Walmart bargain bin. WTF??

Steve Jobs is the one who approached WalMart to place his products with this mass market low end retailer. He knew sooner or later there was no avoiding it.

Rating: 2 Votes

beaniemyman

43 months ago

looks like the iphone 5 is not selling well, poor apple. GS4 and the htc one have really affected the sales

Rating: 2 Votes

Snowshiro

43 months ago

And in Japan, the iPhone 5 is still free, as it has been since the day of launch. Oh and they give you $100 (10,000 yen) cashback as well. So basically it's minus $100.

Amazes me how America seems to put up with this nonsense.

Rating: 2 Votes

imwoblin

43 months ago

It gets even better. AT&T is now running a 50% off promotion which includes iPhones. You can now get a new iPhone 5 for $99 w/ new contract!

Rating: 2 Votes

Michael Scrip

43 months ago

I kind of doubt it too, but I still can't believe Apple is going to let a variety of outlets sell the iPhone 5 for $129 for 3+ months.

Does Apple have a minimum advertised price? Or should they even care? Apple is still getting $649 for each iPhone 5 that these stores order from them. The price cut won't affect Apple's bottom line.

It's the stores who are taking the cut.

But AT&T makes their money on the 2-year contract anyway... so that $100 they're losing up front is a drop in the bucket.

And Wal-Mart only makes pennies from these iPhone sales anyway... they just want to get you in the store so you can buy other stuff.

Knowing that Apple and these retailers have a relationship... these price cuts would be authorized by Apple, right?

Rating: 1 Votes

rickey603

43 months ago

hey all. long time reader, first time poster here. thought i'd put some things to rest:

i work for a walmart in NY in the electronics department. i sometimes deal with the contract phones and have access to the telxon machine that tells me inventory and % mark-up. iphones (which walmart sells outright for $499, $599, and $699 for the 4, 4s, and 5 respectively) are marked up somewhere in the 5-7% range on the outright price. galaxys are marked up 20-30% on the outright price ($649 for the s3 and i believe $699 on the s4, we pretty much just got those in so i'm not as familiar). hardly anyone buys these phones outright though.

when it comes to activations through wireless carriers, the stores see payment on the back end from the carriers. for instance, my store does verizon and t-mobile activations. we get $600 on the back end from verizon per iphone activation and $200-$300 for any android/basic phone activation. all electronics stores that do phone activations are under this payment deal as well.

i can also tell you that walmart is not swimming in iphone inventory either. we get a handful in at a time and really never have more than 10-15 of any model in stock. our regional distribution warehouse also does not keep much stock of these either.

Rating: 1 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]