Roger Fingas
Best Buy has removed options to buy an iPhone 8 or X upfront from its U.S. website, which had previously generated controversy since the retailer was charging a $100 premium on top of Apple's normal retail prices.
"Although there was clearly demand for the unactivated iPhone X, selling it that way cost more money, causing some confusion with our customers and noise in the media," Best Buy spokeswoman Danielle Schumann told Bloomberg on Tuesday. "That's why we decided a few days ago to only sell the phone the traditional way, through installment billing plans."
The retailer's listings for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X now only show options to pay in installments through AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon.
Best Buy typically receives payments from carriers when it sells phones on their networks, but loses that money when it sells unactivated hardware. The retailer was presumably hoping that demand would make a premium acceptable.
The company's prior approach pushed the base price of an iPhone 8 up to $799, and the iPhone X up to $1,099.99. A 256-gigabyte iPhone X was hiked to $1,249.99, just $50 short of what Apple charges for a 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Launch-day preorders for the iPhone X have been exhausted, but it may still be possible to get one on Nov. 3 by camping out in front of an Apple store or another retailer selling the product.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
19 Comments
It wasn't just the iPhone X and 8 that Best Buy did the $100 mark up for. They also did that with the 7 on pre-orders. I know because I did that. I ordered the 7 with the special black finish which too longer to come out. After the initial pre-order rush, the price went back to normal. Since I was waiting for mine, I got it at normal price.
Basically, regular markup on them wasn't enough, and Best Buy thought they'd tack on a little extra for those desperate enough to buy from them.
Free market capitalism at work.
"Best Buy" LOL