Wal-Mart to sell Apple iPhones

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will start offering Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G for sale this weekend, signaling a major new retailing partnership, analysts said.

Wal-Mart, of Bentonville, Ark., said in a statement Friday it will launch sales of the cellular "smart phone" Sunday, offering the eight-gigabyte model for $197 and the 16-gigabyte model for $297. The offers include two-year service agreements with AT&T Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported.

The deal has been long-rumored, and the price points revealed Friday were far more than some speculation pointing to a possible $99 iPhone Wal-Mart price, the newspaper said. iPhones had only been available in the U.S. at stores operated by Apple, AT&T and Best Buy Co.

Apple could significantly increase the number of iPhones sold in the U.S. through the deal, the Journal quoted Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster as saying in a research note written before the deal was announced. Munster wrote that an Apple-Wal-Mart partnership could boost worldwide iPhone sales by 10 percent next year to nearly 50 million units.