AllThingsD:
Apple’s move to make Best Buy an outlet for the iPhone back in 2008 is proving a wise one — lucrative, too.
Over the past few years, the retail chain has become an increasingly important outlet for Apple, extending its reach and distribution via its 1,100 stores. About 600 of them host an Apple Store-within-a-store, most of those in geographic locations that Cupertino feels are too small to support a dedicated Apple store.
And they’re selling a lot of iPhones.
Actually, given the number of stores and the reach, I’m surprised Best Buy doesn’t sell even more iPhones.
Maybe that’s an indication of to what lengths people will go to to avoid shopping at Best Buy.
LOL Good point. Hadn’t thought of it that way. 🙂
What surprises me is the number of people that buy their iPhones at carrier stores – i.e. AT&T & Verizon stores. I can only hope that I never have to set foot in one of those stores ever again.
You have to go to the carrier (well, at least for AT&T) if you have a business account. Apple Store can’t help you for that. Lame, but I know this by experience. I manage our AT&T account at work and we have about 20 iPhones. I suspect it is an artificial carrier limitation although I suppose it could be a limitation of whatever Apple’s integration can do.
Anyway, considering how many corps buy iPhones now, that may make the carrier numbers a little less surprising. If you had only personal use phones in there, the Apple vs carrier spread might be more even. Or maybe not. People have been going to the carrier to get a phone for years. Also, some programs like Verizon’s $50 off work on iPhones. (I’ve never had a Verizon phone but someone at work got an iPhone on her personal Verizon account last year and was still able to get some $50 off bonus that Verizon gives you as a repeat customer, surprising when getting a new iPhone 4S. I figured it wouldn’t qualify, but it did.)
According to Apple, ATT won’t let them handle business accounts, so yes “artificial carrier limitation”.
Also that Verizon thing was cancelled about a month after the iPhone 4 came out.
A vital question that has not been asked. How was the data gathered. How many iPhone customers did CIRP actually talk to. There are millions of iPhones in use in the US, but if they only talked to a couple hundred folks then their data could be statistically unsound and even erroneous. Same with Chitka and their 6% of iPads or even the TV ratings system.