Wal-Mart may be set to sell a 4GB iPhone for $99, Starting Dec. 28, the BoyGenius Website suggested Thursday. The move would mark the return of the iPhone version dropped in 2007 in favor of the 8GB iPhone.
Although BG told readers to take the tip with a grain of salt, reviving the once $399 iPhone comes as handset makers struggle against tightening consumer spending.
“Anyone looking to spend $99 on an iPhone probably doesn’t care that much about storage anyway,” according to the blog.
If true, the action would jive with analysts who have suggested Apple could cut the iPhone’s price to $99. In October, Needham Research’s Charlie Wolf said Apple’s high margins would permit a 50 percent price drop, increasing the marketshare of the already popular iPhone.
The $99 iPhone would require a two-year contract. In October, BG wrote that the iPhone would appear Nov. 15 on Wal-Mart shelves.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
