14 DAY TRIAL // Starting with Sunday, Apple’s iPhone 5 will be available through Walmart at only $129 (€98) after a $60 (€45.6) price cut that will reportedly be permanent.
Furthermore, the retailer will also drop the cost of the iPhone 4S smartphone to only $39 (€29.7), currently available at $89 (€67.7). The cut is not temporary in this case either, it seems.
According to Mashable, which uncovered the news, the retailer will offer the two devices at said price tags with two-year contracts on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.
Users interested in taking advantage of the price cut will have to head over to Walmart’s stores for that, as the deal is not available online, the retailer unveiled.
The price drop is significant, not only due to the amount of money that users will be able to save when making a purchase through the retailer, but also due to the fact that Apple usually limits the discounts that retailers can apply.
In fact, a price reduction of 30 percent for the iPhone 5 and of almost 70 percent for the iPhone 4S is said to be unprecedented. Usually, retailers only drop around $10 (€7.6) from the cost of Apple’s mobile devices.
Although no official info on the matter has been provided as of now, speculation on the upcoming launch of an iPhone 5S model later this year has already emerged, and Walmart’s move could be interpreted from this perspective.
It would be very well possible that the retailer decided to boost sales and clear up inventory before the next iPhone flavor arrived, and the price cut would certainly help it achieve that.
A lower cost for a new iPhone 5 will also put some pressure on the performance of rival devices, including Samsung’s Galaxy S4, Nokia’s Lumia 92x series, HTC’s One flagship and BlackBerry’s new Z10 and Q10 devices.
For those out of the loop, we should note that Best Buy also put in place a special offer on iPhone 5, giving it for free with an iPhone 4/4S trade-in.