Wireless at Walmart: The iPhone’s potential impact
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
By Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence
Apple creating a stripped-down $99 iPhone for Walmart would be more than just counter to the way that technology products, particularly cell phones, usually proceed in the market. It would be an unprecedented move for modern-day Apple, which has avoided retailer-exclusive SKUs except those in its own Apple Store (the Project Red iPod) and has historically striven for simplicity in its product line. Particularly with the iPhone, Apple has been so focused on preserving the level of user experience that it went weeks with low or no inventory of the original iPhone model leading up to the launch of the iPhone 3G.
There’s little doubt as to why Walmart would want to carry the 3G iPhone. NPD tracked the device as the best-selling handset in the U.S. in Q3, surpassing the Motorola RAZR in a dramatic consumer embrace of Web-savvy smartphones. Recent smartphones such as the T-Mobile G1 and Blackberry Storm already represent the second wave of would-be “iPhone killers” following advanced touchscreen feature phones that appeared earlier in the year.
Without such a radically different configuration as the one rumored, an iPhone debut at Walmart would be more of a symbol than a sales beachhead. After all, Walmart has carried iPods for years where they have had lower market share than in other retailers. And the factors that go into choosing a handset, particularly among the pre-paid purchasers dominant at mass merchants, are far more complex than those for an MP3 player.
But as demonstrated by Best Buy’s aggressive rollout of Best Buy Mobile areas within its stores as well as standalone stores and as reinforced by several operator presentations this week, the trend toward the separation of handset and service represents tremendous opportunity for retailers to differentiate the handset-buying experience. Carrying the iPhone would enable Walmart to expose its customers to the potential of wireless Internet access, which could open doors for data with even less expensive devices on different carriers.
Tags: Apple, Best Buy Mobile, iPhone, Walmart
Consumer Technology, Wireless | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence | 
December 11, 2008 10:47 am
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