Wal-Mart’s quest toward commercial dominance has become the thing of both business success and anti-consumerist legend. Their use of tactics like staggeringly low prices, massive inclusion, foreign labor, and community invasion, have made their growth more massive then any comparable institution in modern memory. Apple’s control over the iPhone has kept it in specified sales locations since its birth, until now.
As of December 28th the iPhone is now on sale at Wal-Mart, offering a model that is less than two hundred dollars. This offering is Apple’s major step at changing the image of the iPhone from a device only used by financial elite to a consumer entertainment whose “necessity” is comparable to videogame consoles and high definition televisions. This makes Wal-Mart only the fourth retailer to sell the iPhone, and the only third party location besides Best Buy. Traditionally, the Apple Store and AT&T were the only places to grab the time killer, but those appear as exclusionary clubs to some shoppers. This is not the case with Wal-Mart.
The sales of the iPhone are bound to increase because of this new location, but since there really is no drop in price to coincide with this addition it should not make too much of a splash in the profit pool. Wal-Mart retains its popularity less because of its marketing strategy and more because it is able to offer incomparably low prices. People who want an iPhone tend to seek them out, and the average Wal-Mart customer is not going to grab one on sheer impulse. The likelihood is that a different demographic will begin to pick up the phone in general. This is a blessing and a curse for Apple who will see a larger section of the population normalize smart phones, but also decrease the commodity fetishism that tends to coincide with unattainable electronics. The best solution that Apple is going to make is with the iPhone nano, suspected at retailing for under a hundred dollars. This is what bridged the economic gap with the iPod and the same will be true of the phone.
There is going to be some backlash from activists who are already hot on Apple’s tail. This is an important group for Apple to listen to as these socially aware youth tend to be some of their largest customers, and if Apple intends to start making exclusive agreements with a questionable company such as Wal-Mart people are going to begin putting pressure on them.
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