“So, let’s assume that the stories are right (they seem pretty convincing) and that Wal-Mart stores will start selling Apple iPhones by the end of calendar 2008,” Eric Savitz blogs for Barron’s. “How many iPhones can Wal-Mart actually sell?”
“Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster did some back-of-the-envelope math on that question and concluded that the answer is ‘a lot,'” Savitz reports.
“Here’s the way he approached it: Munster started with his current calendar ‘09 model of 45 million total iPhones,” Savitz reports. “(Let’s not argue right now if he’s too high; though certainly that estimate is a lot higher than many other analyst estimates.) He figures 30% of those will be sold in the U.S. – or 13.5 million – and that one third of those, or 4.5 million, will be sold in U.S. Apple retail stores.”
Full article here.
Not sure this is much better than having them at, say, Costco.
I use to care. But I don’t anymore. As long as Apple is charge of the UI and the quality, I don’t care where they are sold.
Costco treats their employees a lot better then Wal-Mart.
I feel Costco is fast becoming like WalMart.
I miss Price Club, I have been a member since ’92.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates’ Dad is a board member at Costco, wouldn’t you know it.
Would that explain why Zune got so much more prominence at Costcos when it first came out, and still is big in the Costco website.
Meanwhile, WalMart does terrible things (one out of many to pick from) to the environment when they buy off thousands of acres of land in S. America to harvest certain crop round the year, year after year and make the crop’s defense against pests weakened and at the same time kill off the nutrients from the land. Guess what, Costco now does the same, except it offers to make you feel better by slapping on the word organic to it.
krquet,
What crop?
Anyone else notice that the date and time next to your post is missing now?
The fact is, WalMart is the only general merchandise retailer in many American towns. I am glad they will be able to sell iPhones.
As for the WalMart haters, you just need to accept the fact that there actually are people who shop there.
Not everyone has an Apple store up the street. (I do, but I buy all my stuff from MacMall anyway).
Apple won’t sell more than the iPhone at Wal•Mart, the possible PR hit from Wal•Mart’s questionable (to say the least) activities.
I see at least 25 Million iPhones, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 30-35 million count.
I think more than 4.5 will come from Wal•Mart, however.
There’re a lot of stores, and that’s a massive exposure bonus.
Commercials are nice, but when customers actually play with one, they’ll be hooked.
~
What percentatge of total iPods sold does Wal-Mart sell?
The date and time is back!
Maybe it’s the crappy Windoze/IE setup here at work.
A retailer brings you goods at lower prices and all of a sudden, that’s a crime.
What a bass ackwards world we live in.
All my life I’ve comparison shopped and bought the thing I wanted at the highest price I could possibly find.
NOT.