If you have been waiting to get a new iPhone 3Gs, your patience has certainly paid off. Starting today, Walmart stores will begin selling the 16GB version of Apple's iPhone 3Gs for a new low price of $97 with a two year contract.
Considering that the same iPhone sold for $197 at Walmart until now, you may be asking why the iPhone's are being put on a fire sale. Considering past price drop patterns on Apple devices, this can only be signaling that the new iPhone can't be too far off from being released and Apple wants to clear its current inventories as fast as possible.
The decision to get a shiny new 3Gs now or wait another month for the new iPhone's release can only be answered when Apple's developer conference starts on June 7th where we expect Steve Jobs to return for the keynote and to launch the new iPhone himself. The new iPhone is rumored to have some impressive new features including the new 4.0 operating system.
It's important to note that the 4.0 operating system will be available for current 3Gs owners which will provide the bulk of the new features that the new iPhone will no doubt have. The iPhone 3G and 2G will not be able to upgrade to the 4.0 OS mainly due to hardware limitations.
Similar price drops should be expected direct from other retailers and directly from Apple and AT&T soon. Now, if we could just get the iPad for $97...
Correction to your article.
I heard in the keynote that the 3G would be able to upgrade to OS4.0 however, it wouldn't be able to use all the features like MultiTasking and others TBA. It will be able to do Folders thought and others TBA also in the next Keynote.
Correction
Thank you for pointing out the error in my post. Yes, the iPhone 3G can upgrade to the iPhone OS 4.0 when it is released, however with the limitations you mentioned and most likely more that we don't know.
I have read that a jailbreak already exists (if you're into that sort of thing) that will force the 3G to have multitasking like the 3Gs. Not something I would recommend as the 3G has too little memory to make it run effectively which is why Apple removed it as an added option.
doesn't matter to me unless I can upgrade
OUT OF AT&T!
As of this a.m. (6/3/10), the
As of this a.m. (6/3/10), the 3GS models have been removed from the Walmart site (link above does not work either now, but it did yesterday (6/2) morning!)
Oh well... was a great deal while it lasted.
Walmart Sold Out iPhones
You are right Walmart removed the iphone because they sold out within days, however I went to the Apple Store and asked why is Walmart able to sell the same phone at $97. I was told it was a private deal but the sales guy was nice enough to match the price and I got the 3GS for $97 last week.