Walmart to sell new iPad at midnight on Friday

Big-box retailer Walmart is scheduled to start sales of the new iPad at 12:01 a.m. on March 16, beating Apple's own retail outlets to the punch.

Walmart has announced that it will be selling certain versions of Apple's new iPad shortly after midnight at 24-hour locations, which is a full eight hours ahead of Apple Stores' scheduled 8:00 a.m. launch time.

With online pre-orders depleted, customers looking to get the hotly anticipated new tablet on launch day have few options and can only hope to score a unit by waiting in line before resellers begin sales on Friday.

The retail giant will sell the 16GB Wi-Fi version of the device in either black or white for $499, though it is unclear if 4G LTE models will become available later in the day.

Along with Apple's own retail outlets and Walmart, Best Buy, RadioShack, Sams Club and Target are slated to take part in launch day sales. LTE-enabled models will also be available for purchase at Verizon and AT&T stores.

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49 Comments

2992

said about 12 years ago

everybody, move the camping tents to Walmart, now, go go go!!! )

buzzz

said about 12 years ago

If you are in Australia, you could already buy one because they went on sale at midnight at a couple Telstra stores in Sydney.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/techno...82E0O420120315

gwmac

said about 12 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buzzz

If you are in Australia, you could already buy one because they went on sale at midnight at a couple Telstra stores in Sydney.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/techno...82E0O420120315

I would wager that the vast majority of readers on this site live a lot closer to a Wal Mart than they do to a Telstra store in Australia.

kpom

said about 12 years ago

Perhaps Wal-Mart got the idea from Telestra. From what I read the crowds were a little smaller in Australia than for the iPad 2 rollout, but I'm guessing it's because last year there were no pre-orders.

In any case, I'll gladly wait for the FedEx truck tomorrow. Actually, it will arrive while I'm at the office, so it will be there when I get home.

suddenly newton

said about 12 years ago

Wow, Wal-Mart wants to beat the Apple Stores to the punch. Pretty clever. I'd get one from Wal-Mart, then sell it to the highest bidder with cash standing in line at the Apple Store, for a reasonable mark up. Free market, baby. Free market.