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iPhone pricing war heats up as Walmart offers 5s for $119 and Target launches iPad trade-in promotion

From 9to5Toys.com:

iPhone 5s iPad Combo

Update March, 14: Target just let us know it’s taking an additional 1o% off iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display in addition to the trade-in offer and gift cards mentioned below. The extra 10% off is available through Target’s Cartwheel app.

New Apple promotions from Walmart and Target may be enticing enough for holdouts to finally upgrade to the newest iPhone and iPad…

Walmart is getting aggressive and beating out Best Buy’s current $50 discount on iPhone 5s by dropping the price all the way down to $119, according to CNN Money. This is one of the lowest prices we have ever seen for Apple’s flagship smartphone. You can push the price even lower by trading in your old gadgets (smartphones, video games, tablets, more) for Walmart gift cards. The colorful iPhone 5c will be slashed to just $29. Both deals are for the 16GB models on a 2-year contract. Best Buy’s promotion is slightly better for our loyal readers who locked in their free $50 gift card from the electronics retailer.

Starting this Sunday, Target is guaranteeing a gift card of at least $150 for iPad 2 (or newer) trade-ins (via TechnoBuffalo). A quick comparison of other trade-in specialists like Gazelle show that $150 for a ‘good’ condition iPad 2 is slightly above market value. In addition to the inflated trade-in value, Target will also give you an extra $30 gift card if you purchase a new iPad from them. That means you can turn your outdated iPad 2 into a Retina iPad mini for just $220 out of pocket or less if your trade is worth more than the minimum amount. Target is also boosting used smartphone trade-ins by $50 when you purchase a new iPhone 5s/5c with a 2-year agreement.

Meanwhile MacMall offers an iPad 4 with AT&T LTE  for the $399 price of an iPad 2 (tax in 5 states)

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Comments

  1. themis333 - 10 years ago

    \
    Good for consumers.

  2. Sam Maas - 10 years ago

    Just an FYI, MacMall has had the 5s on sale for 119$ since December, I was just there on Wednesday.

    • Dan DeSilva - 10 years ago

      Unfortunately, they do not sell iPhones online and only have 4 retail locations.

  3. frankman91 - 10 years ago

    These are getting as cheap as the mid range Androids. Kinda strange to see it going that way.

    • Steffen Jobbs - 10 years ago

      It doesn’t matter what Best Buy or Walmart are selling the iPhone to customers for. They’ve already paid Apple full price up front. Whatever losses those retail stores take, that’s their problem, not Apple’s. They’re probably trying to clear inventory before the iPhone 6 hits the streets. Apple is not charging less for their iPhones like the Android manufacturers are doing.

      • frankman91 - 10 years ago

        Completely agree, but its annoying to listen to people slam the Galaxy S4 and call it the “cheap wanna-be” compared to the ‘premium’ iPhone, when the far newer iPhone is selling $120 and the 2 year old Galaxy is still $250.

        I understand that they are priced differently when in locked in contract, but everyone is still generalizing the Android user as cheap and not willing to lay out money for an iPhone, but the iPhone is less than half the cost for the very new 5s.

  4. bk9876 - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on bk9876 and commented:
    Cool

  5. Brett Huhn - 10 years ago

    The retailers are getting rid of their stock so that they can sell the new iPhone coming out soon

  6. Joel Henson - 10 years ago

    Man, $180 for my iPad 2 is a real tempting deal…

  7. Nick Lum (@nicklum) - 10 years ago

    I wasn’t able to get the extra $30 with the purchase of an original iPad mini—you have to get the retina mini or more expensive. YMMV, of course!

  8. Walmart has had the 5S for $119 for about a month and a half now.

    • Mandy Larkin - 10 years ago

      I am wanting to try and iphone and I can’t find ANY Walmart that is offering them for $119.00. Any help would be greatly appreciated the Walmart link in the article doesn’t work either.

      • Dan DeSilva - 10 years ago

        You can find the information in the cell phone section at Walmart.com but the deal is in-store only

  9. > I understand that they are priced differently when in locked in contract, but everyone is still generalizing the Android user as cheap and not willing to lay out money for an iPhone, but the iPhone is less than half the cost for the very new 5s.

    That’s just a flat out lie promoted by the cultists, using old data or shoddy, cherry picked statistics. Android phones aren’t cheap, they are EVERYTHING. Name a price point, and there’s an android phone near that price point. More people are buying high end android phones than are buying the iphone. So android phones are the phone of choice for the high end buyer.

    In other words, android is the platform of choice for the wealthy.

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