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Best Buy official on iPhone 3G…Radio shack next

Remember when we told you (OK BGR told us to tell you) that Radio Shack and Best Buy were getting the iPhone soon?  Guess what?  Best Buy announced today that they will be selling the iPhone come September 7 at almost 1000 locations throughout the US.  They will be the first 3rd party retailer to sell the iPhone (unless you count Carphone Warehouse in the UK and every corner bottle-o in some place called ‘Australia’).

Shawn Score, president of Best Buy’s mobile division, says, "We think we’ll have a good supply for our customers."

Analyst Wolf says he believes that Apple is catching up with demand. "Supply is coming on board."

Best Buy says it has a national exclusive on the iPhone (outside of Apple and AT&T stores) through Christmas. The retailer has Apple Macintosh sections at 600 of its stores.

Adding to in-store customer waiting time is a new, longer procedure to activate the iPhone that has made the buying process much longer.

Questions that arise:

 

  • Will Apple be able to meet this demand?  Aug 22 will double the footprint of countries with iPhones including India
  • Will there be trained Apple techs onsite to help?  Buying an iPod is kids play compared to registering an iPhone
  • Will this cheapen the iPhone experience?  When 1/3 of the US (Best Buy customers) has an iPhone, it doesn’t feel quite as special does it?
  • Radio Shack…*ahem* got anything to say?
  • Anyone think Apple will have any trouble getting rid of 10 million iPhones this year?  How about 20 million?

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