Best Buy is reported to officially have officially signed a deal to be selling the iPhone 3G in all of its U.S. retail stores beginning September 7th, 2008.
The retail giant has announced today that all 965 of their stores will carry the mobile device beginning September 7th. It will become the only other U.S. retailer of the handset other than AT&T and Apple stores.
Apparently the deal could not have come at a more opportune time for the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer, as they have recently posted slipping sales figures due to declining discretionary consumer purchases. A September sales boost could help the retailer glide into the ever important holiday season.
Jeff Dudash, a Best Buy spokesperson, has noted that the company has been working tirelessly with Apple to come to an arrangement. As many of you may have been aware, the two companies have enjoyed a partnership since the fall of 2006, when Best Buy began testing out an Apple center concept within 50 stores. After proving fruitful, the company expanded their Apple sector to reach 600 of their retail outlets.
After recently completing a nationwide expansion of Best Buy Mobile, a section within the store dedicated to all things mobile, the company is eager to begin offering the hottest selling handset on the market.
Dudash has claimed that this substantiates just how far the company has been able to bring their mobile operations.
Updates: I personally called over 12 Best Buy locations and 3 of them were able to confirm my inquiry, or say something along the lines of “Yeah, that’s the word going around here.”
“We had a lot of work to do, obviously, to get in a position where Apple and AT&T would feel good about Best Buy Mobile carrying it, and that’s what we’ve done in the last 18 months,” said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile. via Yahoo! News
Macnn was able to confirm the report.
Sources First Reported by Apple Insider
