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Best Buy to offer full iPhone 4S lineup

The retailer will sell all models of the new iPhone 4S from all three of the major carriers, but also offer the iPhone 4 and 3GS at discount prices.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
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Lance Whitney
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Best Buy is offering the iPhone 4S in all models across all three carriers.
Best Buy is offering the iPhone 4S in all models across all three carriers. Best Buy

Apple's iPhone 4S has already secured a home for itself on the shelves at Best Buy.

The retail chain's iPhone 4S Web page shows that it will sell all three flavors of the new phone (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB) at the standard retail prices of $199, $299, and $399, respectively, and in both black and white. Best Buy will also offer prospective iPhone 4 buyers a choice among the three major carriers--AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.

Preorders started last Friday, while the phone itself will go on sale at Best Buy stores and other outlets this coming Friday, October 14.

But the retailer is also offering a carrot stick to customers who'd be perfectly happy with an older model iPhone.

An 8GB iPhone 4 can be picked up for $99 with a two-year contract. The 8GB 3GS will be free on contract, the company confirmed, even though Best Buy's Web page currently shows it as selling for $49.

Though the iPhone 4S disappointed many who were eagerly anticipating an iPhone 5, that hasn't stopped people from ordering the phone in droves. First-day preorders hit a record of 1 million, compared with 600,000 for the iPhone 4. Sprint sold out of the 16GB iPhone 4S only a few days after the preordering started.

A Best Buy spokesperson told CNET that existing stock of the iPhone 4S will first be used to fill preorders.

"While we don't disclose sales numbers, inventory at Best Buy will be used to fulfill preorders first on Friday," the spokesperson explained. "After all preorders at the store have been filled they will be available to customers without a preorder. Inventory varies market to market, store to store--to preorder today customers can visit their local Best Buy or Best Buy Mobile."

Best Buy joins retail rival Target in selling the new phone. But Target is trying to lure in customers by offering a credit for those who trade in their iPhone 4 or 3GS for the iPhone 4S.

Updated 4:45 a.m. PT with information from Best Buy.