Wal-Mart: iPhone 4S price remains the same
It had looked like some stores were offering a healthy discount on Apple's flagship phone, but Wal-Mart now says there was "a pricing error in limited stores."
Last updated: 10:38 a.m. PT
Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: It turns out that word of a markdown for the 16GB iPhone 4S was a mistake.
Reports, including this one, had suggested that Apple's flagship phone could be had for just $114 at some Wal-Mart stores, which would have been a healthy discount from Wal-Mart's regular price of $188. It also seemed that the 8GB iPhone 4 had received a price cut to $34, but that too was in error.
Wal-Mart now says in response to CNET's inquiry that it had run into a glitch: "Yesterday, we experienced a pricing error in limited stores. This has been addressed and the normal prices are in effect." That is, the iPhone 4S is $188, and the iPhone 4 is $88.
Prospective iPhone buyers would have been challenged to hunt down a store with the purported $114 model. One store, in Edmond, Okla., was found offering the cheaper price by Cult of Mac. Another store, in Austin, Texas, had also marked down the price of the iPhone, as discovered by The Verge. But other stores seem to be sticking with the higher price.
I called several East Coast Wal-Mart outlets this morning. None of them were offering the lower price, while several said they don't even carry the iPhone.
Wal-Mart's Web site, by the way, lists the price of the iPhone as $188 but notes that "store pricing may vary" and that the iPhone is available only at select stores.
Update note: This story was partially rewritten to reflect the information in Wal-Mart's response.