Wal-Mart Puts Iphone 5 On Sale For $127; Are Iphone Sales Dragging?

[LaoPo]

Wal-Mart puts iPhone 5 on sale for $127; are iPhone sales dragging?

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-iphone-5-walmart-sales-20121214,0,1234780.story

[pmarlin]

Still not a good deal. You get a locked phone and a two year service with ATT or one of the other US phone service providers and that is not cheap.

[Pib]

Yeap, probably just another subsidized phone contract deal for a couple of years....the mobile phone carrier the phone is locked to ends up paying for most of the iPhone 5 by commission payments to Walmart/Apple when the customer opens a mobile data contract with them.. But don't feel sorry for the mobile carriers as they will easily recoup that cost through the mobile data plan contract the customer has to sign up for to use the phone....and when the dust has settled and the shell game complete what has really happened is the customer has paid a high price for the iPhone 5 (or any manufacturers phone) over a one or two year contract period. Apple is happy....Walmart is happy...and the mobile carrier is happy....but the customer may not be as thrilled as the day he initially bought the phone/signed up for the plan.

Gosh, I really hate the areas/countries of the world where locked phones tied to certain carriers is the norm...the mobile carriers really have you by the short hairs in those places.

[lomatopo]

This article is old news, at least 3 weeks ago.

Obviously Apple already got paid for the phones, but WalMart probably wanted to move inventory, so dropped the price from $190/$199. Not sure how many people buy contract phones at WalMart?

In the U.S most phones are on 2 year contracts so most current iPhone users do not yet need or want to replace their phones. So WalMart is stuck trying to get new customers, which can be challenging.

Many expect Apple to have a decent quarter (Q1 for them, ended 12/31/12) with record numbers of iPhone 5's sold, especially in markets outside the U.S.

Bottom line: I wouldn't read too much into this blue light special. AWS is selling the HTC One X for $0.99 (99 cents), and the Nokia Lumia 920 for $99.99.

Things have really changed in the U.S. where it is easy to buy an unlocked phone, including an iPhone 5 from Apple for slightly less than you can buy it here and get pre-paid service from traditional service providers or MVNOs.

[USNret]

I followed this deal closely as there is a Walmart just down the street (in Honolulu). The phones were hard to come by, and most people reported there were none in stock or that the sales staff was unaware of the special price. Few people got this deal. It was announced shortly before Christmas to bump up sales on other Walmart inventory at the height of Christmas shopping. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Also announced at the same time was a discount on iPad 3rd Gen with Retina display, 16 MB wifi only, for $399. The current (4th gen) model goes for $499. I was able to get one of these at the discounted price, but I consider it only like a $30 discount. It's a discontinued model and the CPU is considerably slower than the newer model. Still, we're very happy with it & I consider it to be a good deal. My store had only 5 in stock and there were no more coming in. Many stores had none. This was an in-store price only; not good for online shopping.

[Chicog]

The battery life on the Lumia is as bad as the iPhone.