Radio Shack renews $50 popular iPhone promotion through Friday
After an initial sale resulted in iPhone sellouts at Radio Shack stores across the U.S., the retailer has brought back the sale for three days, offering $50 off the regular prices of iPhone models, with the iPhone 3GS starting at just $48.99 with contract.
The promotion was renewed on Wednesday and will be available through Friday, Dec. 31. Customers can get an 8GB iPhone 3GS for $48.99, or a 16GB iPhone 4 for $148.99, both $51 off their regular price with a two-year contract. On the high end, the 32GB iPhone 4 is available for $248.99.
Radio Shack has also reduced the prices on refurbished iPhones, selling the 16GB iPhone 4 for $124 with contract, and 32GB iPhone 4 for $224. A refurbished iPhone 3GS is now free with a new activation contract, and $24 for upgrading customers.
But unlike the previous deal, the retailer is reportedly not upping the value of its Trade & Save program. Under the promotion earlier this month, customers who traded in a working iPhone 3G could receive a $75 credit, while a working iPhone 3GS was worth $125, allowing buyers to grab an iPhone 4 for as little as $25.
Update: Readers are reporting that Radio Shack is offering the higher trade-in values of up to $125 for an iPhone 3GS and up to $75 for an iPhone 3G during the three day sale in their areas. However, several Radio Shack stores contacted by AppleInsider confirmed that their trade-in credits were at "normal levels."
The three-day sale is again being advertised as Radio Shack's lowest price ever on the iPhone. The previous sale proved to be such a tremendous success that the company was left with a nationwide shortage of the iPhone before the promotion concluded.
Supplies for the new sale may not be readily available, either. At least one store reached by AppleInsider on Wednesday indicated it does not currently have the iPhone in stock. Radio Shack has more than 4,600 storefronts worldwide.
Previously unheard of, promotions of the iPhone became increasingly common this holiday buying season. Another major retailer, Best Buy, offered customers a free iPhone 3GS this December, with a new two-year-contract. The 8GB iPhone 3GS regularly sells for $99 with a contract.
The promotion was renewed on Wednesday and will be available through Friday, Dec. 31. Customers can get an 8GB iPhone 3GS for $48.99, or a 16GB iPhone 4 for $148.99, both $51 off their regular price with a two-year contract. On the high end, the 32GB iPhone 4 is available for $248.99.
Radio Shack has also reduced the prices on refurbished iPhones, selling the 16GB iPhone 4 for $124 with contract, and 32GB iPhone 4 for $224. A refurbished iPhone 3GS is now free with a new activation contract, and $24 for upgrading customers.
But unlike the previous deal, the retailer is reportedly not upping the value of its Trade & Save program. Under the promotion earlier this month, customers who traded in a working iPhone 3G could receive a $75 credit, while a working iPhone 3GS was worth $125, allowing buyers to grab an iPhone 4 for as little as $25.
Update: Readers are reporting that Radio Shack is offering the higher trade-in values of up to $125 for an iPhone 3GS and up to $75 for an iPhone 3G during the three day sale in their areas. However, several Radio Shack stores contacted by AppleInsider confirmed that their trade-in credits were at "normal levels."
The three-day sale is again being advertised as Radio Shack's lowest price ever on the iPhone. The previous sale proved to be such a tremendous success that the company was left with a nationwide shortage of the iPhone before the promotion concluded.
Supplies for the new sale may not be readily available, either. At least one store reached by AppleInsider on Wednesday indicated it does not currently have the iPhone in stock. Radio Shack has more than 4,600 storefronts worldwide.
Previously unheard of, promotions of the iPhone became increasingly common this holiday buying season. Another major retailer, Best Buy, offered customers a free iPhone 3GS this December, with a new two-year-contract. The 8GB iPhone 3GS regularly sells for $99 with a contract.
Comments
Pretty good deal! Except I still think, $120/mo is too expensive. But I do have unlimited calling and Data so that is some conciliation, I guess.
PS. Don't want to be misleading, I'm pretty sure ATT extended my 2 year contract by 8 months or maybe, knowing ATT, by another 4 years!
And no rain checks of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is very interesting... I find it very hard to believe that RS is doing this themselves, but I also find it hard to believe that Apple would discount this much. My hunch is that AT&T is behind this -- maybe they're trying to lock in as many contracts as they possibly can before the iPhone becomes available on Verizon...
That's entirely possible: AT&T offering a bounty for Radio Shack iPhone subscriptions. They surreptiously fund discounting of a third-party retailer which doesn't the erode in their own stores. With RS supplies being tight, that might drive more traffic to AT&T Retail by people exasperated at trying to find the discounted RS handset.
If I recall from an earlier article, RS also has value-priced reburbished iPhones, too.
As you say, it may be a last ditch effort to nap a bunch of two-year subscriptions before handset exclusivity expires. Whether or not it comes to Verizon is questionable; it may be another U.S. mobile operator.
Great deal but unfortunately no stores in the Chicago are have them in stock and have not had them.
And no rain checks of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I work for radioshack and he is correct. 1 in 10 stores have any at all to sell.
It has to be a high volume store to have any. my store has been out since the last sale and is still out for this sale.
Radioshack LOVES to put things on sale that they KNOW 80% of their stores are out of.
Their idea is to get em in the door, tell the customer we are out of it and try and talk them into something else that has profit margins.
And to answer another post I saw in here. Old people buy 3GS. I sell more 3GS than I do iPhone 4's mainly because I have a lot of old folks in my store and because we only get 1-3 iphone4 in stock in any given month...
Oh no ! Discounted iPhones! What will Steve say when he spews out figures during his next presentation? Will he have a footnote for his figures for sales and iOS activations?
It is most likely that the retailer or carrier is taking the charge, not Apple.
The most reasonable assumption is that AT&T is eating the difference, just to get the two-year subscription commitment before exclusivity ends. After all, the cost of a subsidized iPhone is negligible compared to the two-year revenue of an iPhone cellular subscription. They offered early upgrades to existing iPhone subscribers earlier this year when the iPhone 4 was announced.
If AT&T pays a third-party retailer $50-100, that's only a small margin against the roughly two grand that AT&T will rake in over two years.