Best Buy drops price of Apple's iPhone 4 to $50 with 2-year contract

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
In what appears to be a permanent price drop, Best Buy is selling Apple's 8-gigabyte iPhone 4 for $49.99 with a new two-year contract.

The new price is half that of the regular $99 price for the iPhone 4 with a new service contract. Reseller Best Buy is offering the $49.99 upgrade price on both the GSM iPhone 4 model, compatible with AT&T, as well as the CDMA variants, available for both Verizon and Sprint.

Best Buy's website does not identify the new price as a temporary sale. The new price is the same that Best Buy charges for a refurbished iPhone 4, and the discount is available in both black and white models.

The price cut comes only days after Apple announced it sold 26 million iPhones in the June quarter, representing 28 percent growth over the same period a year prior. Investors viewed that number as disappointing, and AAPL stock took a hit as a result.

Apple executives said during their quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday that they believe the growth slowdown, particularly with respect to iPhone sales, was at least somewhat attributable to rumors of new products. The company is widely expected to launch its next-generation iPhone with a slightly larger 4-inch display later this year.

Best Buy


The iPhone 4 was first released in mid-2010 and marked the debut of the high-resolution Retina display, as well as the forward-facing FaceTime camera. It is currently Apple's mid-range handset, resting between the newest model, the iPhone 4S, and the low-end iPhone 3GS, available for free with a two-year contract. Verizon and Sprint do not offer the iPhone 3GS, which means the iPhone 4 is Apple's entry-level handset with those two carriers.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    daharderdaharder Posts: 1,580member
    Very good deal... especially as my iPhone4 tended to get much better battery life than my iPhone4S ever has., and Siri (the only truly notable difference between the 4 and 4s) lost it's luster after a few days and wouldn't be missed.

    The only downfall is that it's only the 8gb model, which is likely fine for those shopping at this price point.
  • Reply 2 of 22
    woodlinkwoodlink Posts: 198member


    Apparently, Best Buy is wrongly calling it the iPhone 4.


     


    According to some folks, calling it the iPhone 4 is a big, bad misnomer.


     


    And misnomers piss the mods off.


     


    image

  • Reply 3 of 22
    fairthropefairthrope Posts: 249member


    Times are hard, money are scares, foot traffic drops.


     


    No surprise if they just want to draw some more crowd, if nothing else.

  • Reply 4 of 22
    fairthropefairthrope Posts: 249member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post



    The only downfall is that it's only the 8gb model, which is likely fine for those shooping at this price point.


    You can't get used one from mall kiosks with 500 apps and jailbroken while you wait? I got mine in Thailand that way.

  • Reply 5 of 22
    theothergeofftheothergeoff Posts: 2,081member


    Permanent.  Until September.

  • Reply 6 of 22
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,239member


    Interesting. 


     


    Apple's pattern with iDevices has been to cut the price on older devices only after new devices come out. But they could change that policy, and drop the price on older devices BEFORE the new device comes out. 


     


    Obviously that would send a pretty clear signal that a new device is about to come out, but it looks like that signal is clearly being sent and received by customers anyway. 


     


    If apple were to cut prices a little earlier on aging products, they could smooth out this growing seasonality in iDevice sales. 

  • Reply 7 of 22
    theothergeofftheothergeoff Posts: 2,081member


    that said... it's interesting.  basically it's saying 4's are filling the inventory channel, either at BBY or at Apple, which makes sense.  why buy a $99 phone when in 2 months the 4s will likely be a $99 phone fully supporting (as we know at the moment) all of iOS 6.     But to drop the price now... 2 months prior... (2 weeks prior I understand),  it portends a slow sales quarter for the iPhone.

  • Reply 8 of 22
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by Woodlink View Post


    Apparently, Best Buy is wrongly calling it the iPhone 4.


     


    According to some folks, calling it the iPhone 4 is a big, bad misnomer.


     


    And misnomers piss the mods off.



     


    I'm sorry, the 4th iPhone running iOS 4 and having an A4 chip was called the iPhone 4.


     


    If you're going to mock someone (in violation of the rules) at least have the decency to know what you're talking about.

  • Reply 9 of 22
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    woodlink wrote: »
    Apparently, Best Buy is wrongly calling it the iPhone 4.

    According to some folks, calling it the iPhone 4 is a big, bad misnomer.

    And misnomers piss the mods off.

    :lol:
    F-A-I-L

    And congratulations, it looks like you pissed off a moderator.
  • Reply 10 of 22


    Mmm… I'm surprised they have that much leeway to cut the price in half.


     


    Normally Apple limits resellers' discounts to 10% or 15% at the most.


     


    I [mostly] dictated this on my iMac... the new iPad and iPhone 4S give much better results...


     


    I wonder if the noise cancellation circuitry in the iDevices makes the difference.

  • Reply 11 of 22
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post



    Very good deal... especially as my iPhone4 tended to get much better battery life than my iPhone4S ever has., and Siri (the only truly notable difference between the 4 and 4s) lost it's luster after a few days and wouldn't be missed.

    The only downfall is that it's only the 8gb model, which is likely fine for those shopping at this price point.


     


    The CPU/GPGPU combo on the 4S is not the same as it is in the 4, not to mention better sensors, camera and more.

  • Reply 12 of 22
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post

    The CPU/GPGPU combo on the 4S is not the same as it is in the 4, not to mention better sensors, camera and more.


     


    Why bother responding to that idiot at all?

  • Reply 13 of 22


    Well up here where it's cold in Canada one official carrier (fido.ca) has it free without deadline.


     


    My 3Gs has cracks all over, is unlocked but it doesn't work, the screen is obviously less briliant so that might make it very interesting...

  • Reply 14 of 22
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    I'm sorry, the 4th iPhone running iOS 4 and having an A4 chip was called the iPhone 4.


     


    If you're going to mock someone (in violation of the rules) at least have the decency to know what you're talking about.



     


    Funny you should say that, as I've seen you mock users on a regular basis here.


    Do as you say, not as you do, eh Skil?

  • Reply 15 of 22
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member


    As for this deal, you're better holding off for the eventual 99 dollar 4S. Though it's pretty much identical to the 4 speed-wise, reception seems to be better with the new antenna design, and the camera is noticeably better, especially in low light conditions. Add to this the fact that all iOS6 functionality will be supported on the S, and it's worth the wait plus the extra 50 bucks.

  • Reply 16 of 22
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    What are you talking about, "identical speed-wise"? The 4S is much faster in terms of processing (dual core CPU in iPhone 4S vs. single core CPU in iPhone 4), graphics, and cellular data (HSPA+ vs. HSPA). The iPhone 4S camera blows doors on the camera in the iPhone 4.

    Almost everything inside of the iPhone 4S is an upgrade from the iPhone 4. The only thing that really didn't change was the Retina display and the cosmetics.

    But yeah, the iPhone 4S is the one to get when it's cheap. The single-core iPhones simply aren't going to handle future iOS upgrades as well as the dual-core models. You'd have to be pretty short-sighted to buy an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 at this time on contract. But hey, what the heck, why should I care? The older models have great gross margins, so Apple is raking in the dough by selling the older handsets.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    xrcxxrcx Posts: 117member


    I wish they would do away with the contracts or at least cut them down to a year. Especially on outdated models. They should just eat the subsidy cost and call it good, I think they would attract far more people with little gestures like that and they would make up the subsidy cost through subscription fees which they already do anyway.


     


    But I know asking for AT&T or Verizon to care about anything other than profit is a loosing argument.

  • Reply 18 of 22
    joshajosha Posts: 901member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post



    Very good deal... especially as my iPhone4 tended to get much better battery life than my iPhone4S ever has., and Siri (the only truly notable difference between the 4 and 4s) lost it's luster after a few days and wouldn't be missed.

    The only downfall is that it's only the 8gb model, which is likely fine for those shopping at this price point.




    Here in CDA the iPhone 4 has been $0 down on a 3 yr contract for several months.    The monthly contract fee can be as low as $50.

  • Reply 19 of 22
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post


    Permanent.  Until September.



     


    That has to be wrong. If they are marking down the iPhone 4 that that must mean that they KNOW that the new iPhone is coming out in just a couple of weeks so they want to get rid of as many as they can at this price before they are forced to make it down to $1 with contract when it replaces the 3gs as the bargain phone. 

  • Reply 20 of 22
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post

     it portends a slow sales quarter for the iPhone.


     


    Sales will be slow even if you give it away for free and pay the sales tax for the customer. It's the nature of the game that folks won't buy in droves because they are certain the new one is any day away. used to happen every April/May with the iPhone was announced at WWDC. Same gig with the iPads. few to no one buys one during Jan/Feb because they 'know' there's a new one in March

Sign In or Register to comment.