UBS analyst Maynard Um became the latest to douse cold water on talk of a $99 iPhone appearing on Wal-Mart shelves. Um said such a move would disregard Apple’s pricing practices.
“We believe a $99 iPhone would be atypical of Apple’s premium brand strategy,” Um told investors Monday. The analyst believed $149 would be more realistic for a 4GB iPhone.
Although others, such as Kaufman Bros.’ Shaw Wu last week called a $99 iPhone “inevitable,” Um said such a move would “cannibalize” sales of the 8GB and 16GB versions, cutting Apple’s share price by $0.27 in 2009.
Um noted Mercury News, while confirming Wal-Mart will sell iPhones starting Dec. 28, mentioned just one worker speaking of a $99 handset.
Earlier today, MacRumors published a photo of Wal-Mart training material with iPhones priced at $197.
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.
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