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Friday, July 27, 2012, 10:12 am
Best Buy drops price of Apple's iPhone 4 to $50 with 2-year contract
In what appears to be a permanent price drop, Best Buy is selling Apple's 8-gigabyte iPhone 4 for $49.99 with a new two-year contract.The new price is half that of the regular $99 price for the iPhone 4 with a new service contract. Reseller Best Buy is offering the $49.99 upgrade price on both the GSM iPhone 4 model, compatible with AT&T, as well as the CDMA variants, available for both Verizon and Sprint.
Best Buy's website does not identify the new price as a temporary sale. The new price is the same that Best Buy charges for a refurbished iPhone 4, and the discount is available in both black and white models.
The price cut comes only days after Apple announced it sold 26 million iPhones in the June quarter, representing 28 percent growth over the same period a year prior. Investors viewed that number as disappointing, and AAPL stock took a hit as a result.
Apple executives said during their quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday that they believe the growth slowdown, particularly with respect to iPhone sales, was at least somewhat attributable to rumors of new products. The company is widely expected to launch its next-generation iPhone with a slightly larger 4-inch display later this year.
The iPhone 4 was first released in mid-2010 and marked the debut of the high-resolution Retina display, as well as the forward-facing FaceTime camera. It is currently Apple's mid-range handset, resting between the newest model, the iPhone 4S, and the low-end iPhone 3GS, available for free with a two-year contract. Verizon and Sprint do not offer the iPhone 3GS, which means the iPhone 4 is Apple's entry-level handset with those two carriers.
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Previous Comments View All
Apparently, Best Buy is wrongly calling it the iPhone 4.
According to some folks, calling it the iPhone 4 is a big, bad misnomer.
And misnomers piss the mods off.
Times are hard, money are scares, foot traffic drops.
No surprise if they just want to draw some more crowd, if nothing else.
The only downfall is that it's only the 8gb model, which is likely fine for those shooping at this price point.
You can't get used one from mall kiosks with 500 apps and jailbroken while you wait? I got mine in Thailand that way.
Permanent. Until September.
Interesting.
Apple's pattern with iDevices has been to cut the price on older devices only after new devices come out. But they could change that policy, and drop the price on older devices BEFORE the new device comes out.
Obviously that would send a pretty clear signal that a new device is about to come out, but it looks like that signal is clearly being sent and received by customers anyway.
If apple were to cut prices a little earlier on aging products, they could smooth out this growing seasonality in iDevice sales.
that said... it's interesting. basically it's saying 4's are filling the inventory channel, either at BBY or at Apple, which makes sense. why buy a $99 phone when in 2 months the 4s will likely be a $99 phone fully supporting (as we know at the moment) all of iOS 6. But to drop the price now... 2 months prior... (2 weeks prior I understand), it portends a slow sales quarter for the iPhone.
Apparently, Best Buy is wrongly calling it the iPhone 4.
According to some folks, calling it the iPhone 4 is a big, bad misnomer.
And misnomers piss the mods off.
I'm sorry, the 4th iPhone running iOS 4 and having an A4 chip was called the iPhone 4.
If you're going to mock someone (in violation of the rules) at least have the decency to know what you're talking about.
Apparently, Best Buy is wrongly calling it the iPhone 4.
According to some folks, calling it the iPhone 4 is a big, bad misnomer.
And misnomers piss the mods off.
And congratulations, it looks like you pissed off a moderator.
Mmm... I'm surprised they have that much leeway to cut the price in half.
Normally Apple limits resellers' discounts to 10% or 15% at the most.
I [mostly] dictated this on my iMac... the new iPad and iPhone 4S give much better results...
I wonder if the noise cancellation circuitry in the iDevices makes the difference.
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| Model | White | Black | |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPad mini (WiFi only) | |||
| 16GB WiFi |  |
$329.99 | $329.99 |
| 32GB WiFi | |
$429.99 | $429.99 |
| 64GB WiFi | |
$529.99 | $529.99 |
| iPad mini (WiFi + 4G) | |||
 |
 |
 |
|
| 16GB 4G White | $459.99 | $459.99 | $459.99 |
| 32GB 4G White | $559.99 | $559.99 | $559.99 |
| 64GB 4G White | $659.99 | $659.99 | $659.99 |
| 16GB 4G Black | $459.99 | $459.99 | $459.99 |
| 32GB 4G Black | $559.99 | $559.99 | $559.99 |
| 64GB 4G Black | $659.99 | $659.99 | $659.99 |
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Very good deal... especially as my iPhone4 tended to get much better battery life than my iPhone4S ever has., and Siri (the only truly notable difference between the 4 and 4s) lost it's luster after a few days and wouldn't be missed.
The only downfall is that it's only the 8gb model, which is likely fine for those shopping at this price point.