IPhone 5S prices slashed at Walmart, BestBuy
Even as rumors begin to circulate about the next iPhone, at least two retailers are slashing prices on the current model.
As CNN Money first reported, the 16GB iPhone 5S is currently selling for $119 at Walmart, assuming consumers sign a two-year contract with either Verizon Wireless or AT&T. (The purchase must also be made in-store, not online.) That's down 80 bucks from the $200 you'd pay for a 16GB iPhone 5S at the Apple site or at a brick-and-mortar Apple store.
Meanwhile, BestBuy has also reduced prices on its iPhone 5S stock, albeit not as steeply as Warmart: The flagship Apple phone with 16GB of storage costs $149.99 at the electronics giant (with a contract, of course).
Released last fall, the iPhone 5S largely resembles the iPhone 5, which hit store shelves in 2012. The device, wrote David Pierce of The Verge, "is but a minor improvement over the 5, with only the camera and perhaps Touch ID truly counting as purchase-worthy upgrades."
For a completely overhauled iPhone, consumers will have to wait for the iPhone 6, a device expected to arrive at some point this fall. So what will the next Apple smart phone look like? Well, in a note to investors this week, Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves predicted that Apple will increase the screen size of the iPhone again – and with it, the price.
"We believe Apple can sell a 4.7-inch iPhone at a subsidized price of $299, which should generate incremental gross profit on replacement sales and attract new customers that had previously purchased Android phones specifically for a larger screen," Hargreaves wrote, according to ZDNet.
