Wal-Mart

Yes Virginia, there is a $99 iPhone

AT&T (T) on Saturday began offering refurbished iPhones for the lowest price yet seen in the United States:

$99 for a black 8GB iPhone 3G (refurbished)
$199 for a black 16 GB iPhone 3G (refurbished)

The price points are not entirely unexpected. For several weeks before Christmas, Apple (AAPL) blogs were buzzing with rumors that Wal-Mart (WMT) would be selling a new version of Apple's iPhone at the magical $99 price.

But it was MORE

Wal-Mart to sell iPhone starting Sunday

Wal-Mart confirmed Friday what everyone who follows Apple already knew: that it will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 Wal-Mart stores starting Sunday Dec. 28 -- three days after Christmas.

Wal-Mart will sell the red-hot mobile device for $197 for the 8GB model and $297 for the 16GB model, or $2 off their current prices. There had been rumors that Wal-Mart would sell a $99 iPhone. (See Anatomy of a MORE

Analyst: Apple could sell a million iPhone gift cards

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu has been checking with his contacts in Apple's (AAPL) supply and distribution channels and reports that demand for the iPhone is "fairly healthy" in the U.S., Europe and, with the exception of Japan, most of Asia Pacific. He's anticipating sales of 6 million units for the December quarter (Apple's fiscal 2009 Q1), down from 6.9 million in Q4 but in line with the Street's expectations MORE

Anatomy of a rumor: Wal-Mart's $99 iPhone

The blogs and business wires were buzzing Monday morning with two juicy iPhone rumors: 1) That Wal-Mart would begin selling iPhones three days after Christmas and 2) That a low-end model would sell for $99.

The first, as we reported nearly three weeks ago, is true. (See Wal-Mart's post-Christmas iPhone sale.)

The second, as near as anyone can tell, is almost certainly not true -- although it seems to have taken on a life MORE

iPod holiday sales: Hot or cold?

We're getting an unusually sharp divergence of expert opinion on how well the iPod is likely to do this holiday season.

The conventional wisdom -- reflected in Arik Hesseldahl's "Apple's iPod Problem" in Businessweek -- is that everybody who wants an iPod already has one, and doesn't see much reason to upgrade, especially with the economy in the dumps. "As a result," he wrote, "some analysts believe this will be the MORE

Wal-Mart's post-Christmas iPhone sale

The mystery of Steve Jobs' iPhone retail strategy deepens with reports that Apple (AAPL) will begin selling its smartphones at Wal-Mart (WMT) three days after Christmas.

According to the Boy Genius Report, a blog with relatively reliable backchannel sources at AT&T, Apple will start with select Wal-Mart and Sam's Club outlets on Dec. 28, and eventually roll the iPhone out to 2,500 Wal-Mart owned stores.

The deal, if confirmed, would represent the MORE

Apple: We are No. 1 in music

After a confusing 24 hours in which Apple watchers struggled to reconcile a Feb. 26 press release from the company that proclaimed iTunes the No. 2 music retailer with NPD data that showed iTunes in the No. 1 spot six weeks earlier (see here), Apple (AAPL) on Thursday issued a new press release declaring itself No. 1 for both January and February. The key sentence:

Apple® today announced that the iTunes® MORE

Apple's iTunes is briefly No. 1 in music

UPDATE: Apple on Thursday issued a press release declaring itself No.1. See here.

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It happened one week in January, according to a memo sent to Apple employees on Wednesday and intercepted by Ars Technica (link). The memo contained weekly data from a NPD Group Music Survey dated Jan. 8, 2008, and showed Apple's (AAPL) iTunes store passing Wal-Mart (WMT) for the first time to become the No. 1 MORE