Monday, June 14, 2010, 10:00 am

Best Buy to take iPhone 4 pre-orders alongside Apple tomorrow

By Sam Oliver

Best Buy announced Monday that it will be an authorized participant in Apple's iPhone 4 pre-launch on Tuesday, in which customers can visit one of its retail locations to reserve one of the new handsets for pickup the following week.

Beginning tomorrow, June 15, customers can pre-order a 16 or 32GB iPhone 4 at any Best Buy or Best Buy Mobile standalone store nationwide then return to the same store on Thursday June 24 to take receipt of their new phone.

"It's exciting to have an opportunity to launch this iconic device with this pre-sale," said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile. "Adding the iPhone 4 to our stores alongside other great smartphones like the HTC EVO from Sprint and HTC Incredible on Verizon, gives customers a great opportunity to view each side-by-side and get the mobile phone that works best for them."

Best Buy joins rival specialty electronics retailer Radio Shack, who last week confirmed to AppleInsider that it was also authorized by Apple to gather iPhone 4 pre-orders from its customers.

As part of its effort, Radio Shack has reportedly been considering opening some of its shops a couple of hours early tomorrow to field pre-order signups from customers.

Come June 24th, iPhone 4 will also be available nationwide at AT&T and Wal-Mart locations. Unlike Best Buy and Radio Shack, however, Wal-Mart will not pre-sell the device to customers. Meanwhile, AT&T has said little about if and how it will field pre-orders.