Why Wal-Mart is key to iPhone domination
As the world's largest retailer (and company), Wal-Mart commands a significant amount of respect. In fact, I think the company is the most important retailer to any company in any industry, let alone Apple and the tech industry.
But Friday's announcement that the iPhone will be coming to Wal-Mart store shelves on Sunday has changed the face of the cell phone industry. In effect, it means that Apple, one of the most important hardware companies in the space, will see its popular mobile phone be made available to millions of more customers. It also means that Research In Motion and every other company in the market that's trying desperately to compete with Apple simply won't be able to do it.
That the iPhone's availability at Wal-Mart will lead to Apple's domination in the mobile phone market probably sounds a bit radical, doesn't it? I can understand that. But when you consider Wal-Mart's size and importance, along with its decision to ignore devices from every Apple competitor, I think it's abundantly clear that the opportunities for success for RIM, Google, and the rest are severely diminished.
To believe Wal-Mart won't have a significant impact on the dynamics of the smartphone business is ludicrous. Not only is it the world's largest retailer, but it also caters to a clientele infatuated with affordable gadgetry. And with an iPhone price tag of just $197 or $297, depending on the version customers pick, I simply don't think the entry fee will stop anyone from heading to Wal-Mart to pick up an iPhone.
Remember years ago when you could only find a cell phone at your carrier's store? Those days are gone, even though Apple is the only company that realizes that. In just two short years, the iPhone has become the single device that can be found beyond the auspices of the carrier's building. You can find it at an Apple Store, a Best Buy, AT&T shops, online, and now, at the most important retailer of them all, Wal-Mart. And although it's only available on one service--AT&T--that has proven to be only a slight hindrance so far and Wal-Mart availability will make it even less troublesome.
RIM is still an important company in the smartphone space, and we can never count Symbian out. But when we consider that the iPhone is one of the most coveted tech gadgets of the past decade, that it's relatively affordable, and that it's available to millions of people in thousands of locations nationwide, I simply don't see how we can say anymore that RIM and other rivals have the ability to compete.
Rest assured that this estimation has nothing to do with the product itself. Instead, RIM's inability to compete has everything to do with the iPhone's availability and allure. Oh, and maybe its superior App Store.
Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Cell phones have been available at non-carrier stores for years. What kind of research did you do???
[Edited to remove personal attack.]
It's nice that the US is playing catch up in the mobile phone market again but I'm not sure how you think this will enable the iPhone to dominate in the non-US markest where sales have been healthy but no better than, say, the N95 had in 2007.
[Edited to remove personal attack.]
Besides, do all of you really think Apple doesn't have a stripped down version of the iPhone just for Walmart? Come on!
I can honestly say I will never own an iPhone until it's on a decent network... Why they chose AT&T for their American Carrier I will never truly understand. I was surprised enough to see Apple tip-toeing into the cell phone market in the first place by making a demo version (iPhone version 1 still has no legitimate reason to have not supported 3G... this was Apple testing the market). Then see them go to a network which just STARTED 3G adoption... even Sprint would have been better! Verizon should have been the obvious choice, but maybe Apple felt that Verion was "The Man" and Cingular represented more of the garbage image they're trying to make their company look like...
The Wal*Mart thing I get... Wal*Mart has been a Cingular retailer for a while, it was only a matter of time before they carried the iPhone, the carried the iPods and the iPod Touch for a while now so there's no reason they wouldn't carry the iPhone. I wasn't surprised when Best Buy carried it too... infact it's more surprising it took this long.
Only Apple has the know how to make these things seem like big deals - I'll give them that. They know how to market, by making exclusivity seem like reality.
Apple: "Well.. normally you'd need to go to an Apple store... but for you of the unwashed... we shall allow you to go to your 'Wal*Mart' and purchase our product."
Fans: "AMAZING!!"
Apple: "I know, our grace knows no bounds, now away with you!"
Um, because T-Mobile is too small and because Verizon rejected Apple's initial iPhone offer? Yes, Verizon had first shot at the iPhone. They turned it down. So it's Verizon's obsession with gimping their own cell devices that led to the iPhone at AT&T. Stop blaming Apple for the AT&T exclusivity. Blame Verizon.
The AT&T service has been the weak link, but in my experience in recent months it has gotten much better for whatever reason. Verizon would have been my first choice as well but at the moment the AT&T service is only a notch below Verizon to me. Not way out of the ballpark. The carrier I hate due to bad experiences is Sprint and I'm so thankful Apple didn't end up there.
Walmart already carries phones from SEVERAL other carriers.
Apple is well BEHIND the curve here.
"In just two short years, the iPhone has become the single device that can be found beyond the auspices of the carrier's building."
This reads like a satire of Apple fanboyism. Very, very disappointing from CNET, which we should be able to trust to be reasonably well informed about the marketplace for electronics.
Similarly, show me one city that successfully lobbied to keep Walmart out that then experienced a revitalization. Again, don't bother with research. You won't find a single city to fit that description.
As for salaries and benefits...Walmart pays more and offers more benefits than any otehr retail store. And a LOT more than mom and pop stores (usually employeeing relatives for minimumwage, with ZERO benefits and no health insurance at all) IS everyone making a "living wage" at Walmart? Nope. Then again, no one ever guaranteed people that they can raise a large family when all they can offer employers is "monkey work" of unskilled labor. If you ant to live well, you need to better yourself and offer companies that other people can't. That will help you get paid more. The fact of the matter is, trained monkeys LITERALLY can stock shelves. They don't deserve $15 an hour.
My question is, what have YOU done to keep those little, overpriced, dirty, inconvenient stores in business? I personally can't stand going to places where they have 1/10th the options available to me, then talk about how a better-run business is making their life harder.
And I couldn't agree more about the wages. Wal-Mart isn't advanced medicine or theoretical physics. It's walking around, pointing at aisles, and punching buttons to process cards at a cashier. Maybe mopping a floor once in a while. How much money do people honestly think they are entitled to earn when people who try MUCH harder to learn and contribute to the world make less in many cases. (Ever tried working at a not-for-profit, people?)
Big banks, big business, and execs are not to blame. It's the simple fact that people don't want to go 50 places to get things they could get at 1, and nothing's going to change that. Boo hoo.
The iPhone isn't the only phone that Walmart sells, and if Walmart picks other phones carefully (e.g., the Nokia 5310 or 5800), the iPhone may mainly serve to get people in the door and sell them on some other product.
Wal-Mart carries numerous smart phones, including Blackberries:
http://walmart.letstalk.com/product/browse.htm?pgId=100&tNav=1&corpId=654&search=blackberry
So, err, the entire premise of your article kinda collapses, yanno?
Now that said, Apple does stand a solid chance of gaining massive traction in Wal-Mart, but not to the exclusion of everyone esle.
but that's an apple fan for you, style over substance.
[Edited to remove prohibited advertisement.]
- by iphonedied December 27, 2008 10:27 AM PST
- OK, it is time for the Dept of Justice to step in and halt Apple's evil reign of monopolistic terror.
- Reply to this comment
-
-
- by thejokker December 27, 2008 11:38 AM PST
- umm....What?
-
-
- by helroth December 27, 2008 4:54 PM PST
- What are you talking about? What monopoly? Is the iPhone the only smartphone on the market? It has the same market share as Blackberries over the last 6 months (the iPhone is just creeping ahead), not to mention all the others. What evil acts? Making good products that people want to buy?
-
-
- by myles taylor December 27, 2008 5:41 PM PST
- Right...someone makes a product that a lot of people choose and suddenly they become an monopoly.
-
-
- by eyedemon December 28, 2008 6:19 AM PST
- While I don't care for either company, Their buisness model works. They are the American dream and good for America.
-
-
- by The_Decider December 28, 2008 11:54 AM PST
- Then the "American Dream" is really a nightmare.
-
-
- by KPHFan December 29, 2008 1:19 AM PST
- a monopoly with single didgit market share?
-
-
- by Seaspray0 December 29, 2008 11:50 AM PST
- by myles taylor December 27, 2008 5:41 PM PST
-
-
- by GandalfoGris December 29, 2008 3:14 PM PST
- Uhm... can I still have my Apple cinnamon Cheerios?
-
-
- by iphonedied December 30, 2008 12:08 PM PST
- Just making light of all of the MacHead Microsoft bashers. Funny that you can take THEIR excuses and paste them into why Microsoft should not have had governmental intervention. Government meddling in markets is wrong.
-
-
Showing 1 of 4 pages (142 Comments)Steve Jobs needs to sit in front of a Congressional panel for five days straight to answer for his evil acts.
WalMart's CEO needs to explain to the Dept of Justice why this is good for trade and good for America. Because it isn't! Boycott all things Apple!
Government intervention? Hilarious.
Right...someone makes a product that a lot of people choose and suddenly they become an monopoly.
Yes, they do if enough people choose it. That's the definition of a monopoly.
And no, I am not a Windows bigot. I am writing this in Firefox running on Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.