Buying an iPhone at Best Buy

Best Buy began selling the Apple iPhone on Sunday, becoming the first U.S. retailer to do so outside of Apple and AT&T stores. The Apple iPhone will be carrier in 970 Best Buy stores. Rich Tehrani and I decided to take a walk to Best Buy which is just down the street from TMC and take some pictures of their display. Rich was also interested in buying an external battery back for his current iPhone since the battery life is atrocious. He especially wants the extra juice so he is prepared for ITEXPO just one week away. No doubt Rich will be being tons of interviews as well as speaking, and he'll be using his iPhone to take photos, record video interviews, and check email. I'm using my Windows Mobile xv6700 phone and plan on using LiveCast to stream portions of ITEXPO.

As we approached the Best Buy store, we noticed the Apple iPhone stickers on both sets of sliding glass doors heavily promoting that they are carrying the iPhone. Both Rich and I snapped some photos. As we entered the store, the "greeter" told us we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the store. So we weren't able to snap photos of the display.

Here's what we learned. One, a Best Buy representative told us that Best Buy is not allowed to advertise the fact that they are carrying the iPhone and said "Apple wants most of the revenue.", implying that Apple wants people to purchase iPhones directly from Apple stores. Very interesting. Well they may not be able to advertise it in TV, newspapers, etc. but they sure are advertising the hell out of the iPhone in the store itself!

The display of the iPhone with a demo unit is front and center as you walk into the store. You are bombarded with pictures of the iPhone and the demo display as soon as your walk in. You can sort of make out the iPhone display and the table containing iPhone brochures and literature in this picture below:

The iPhone accessories display was a bit limited. They didn't offer an external battery pack that Rich was looking for. Offering iPhones in 970 Best Buy retail stores gives Apple a much larger retail footprint than just their Apple & AT&T stores. That's a huge plus for Apple. Also, when people walk into an AT&T store or even an Apple store, they are probably already interested in an iPhone. Customers walking into Best Buy to buy electronics or DVDs, might make a impulse purchase of an iPhone after seeing / playing with the demo unit and all the corresponding iPhone marketing literature.

Rich is blogging our trip to Best Buy as well speak. Be sure to check out his blog for more.