Today, Apple announced that its iPad media tablet products would be available at AT&T and Verizon Wireless retail stores later this month. As noted in an ABI Researchblog posting
earlier this week
, Apple has been planning additional retail exposure for its first-generation media tablet in preparation for the US holiday buying season. Which models will be available from what venues?
ABI Research has assembled the following table detailing the models, pricing and availability from a range of US retail and e-commerce sites.
|
Vendor
|
16GB Wi-Fi |
16GB Wi-Fi/3G |
32GB Wi-Fi |
32GB Wi-Fi/3G |
64GB Wi-Fi |
64GB Wi-Fi/3G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Amazon.com
|
$520.50 +
|
$669.99 +
|
$656.00 +
|
$774.99 +
|
$718.00 +
|
$892.00 +
|
|
Apple Store, Apple.com
|
$499.00
|
$629.00
|
$599.00
|
$729.00
|
$699.00
|
$829.00
|
|
AT&T Retail
|
|
$629.00 starting Oct 28
|
|
$729.00 starting Oct 28
|
|
$829.00 starting Oct 28
|
|
Best Buy Retail, BestBuy.com
|
$499.99
In-Store Only
|
$629.99
In-Store Only
|
$599.99
In-Store Only
|
$729.99
In-Store Only
|
$699.99
In-Store Only
|
$829.99
In-Store Only
|
|
Target Retail, Target.com
|
$499.99
In-Store Only
|
$629.99
In-Store Only
|
$599.99
In-Store Only
|
$729.99
In-Store Only
|
$699.99
In-Store Only
|
$829.99
In-Store Only
|
|
Verizon Wireless Retail
|
$629.99
Bundled with MiFi 2200 starting Oct 28
|
|
$729.99
Bundled with MiFi 2200 starting Oct 28
|
|
$829.99
Bundled with MiFi 2200 starting Oct 28
|
|
|
Wal-Mart Retail, Walmart.com
|
$499.00 online + retail by mid-Nov
|
$629.00 online + retail by mid-Nov
|
$599.00 online + retail by mid-Nov
|
$729.00 online + retail by mid-Nov
|
$699.00 online + retail by mid-Nov
|
$829.00 online + retail by mid-Nov
|
Source: ABI Research
Sam’s Club, a warehouse store chain and division of Wal-Mart Stores, announced plans to offer the iPad during an investor meeting this week. Sam’s Club operates at more than 500 US locations. No estimate of availability or product mix was provided.
What other national retailers remain sans iPad? Warehouse club competitor Costco (417 US stores) and electronics chain RadioShack (6,000 company and dealer-owned stores) are two of the largest national retailers not announcing deals with Apple so far.
Not much variation in pricing (less than $1 in most cases) can be found across most of the offers and no retail partners are undercutting the Apple-direct price.
The greatest variance is for bundles of the three Wi-Fi models paired with Novatel’s MiFi router from Verizon Wireless. This is Verizon’s first foray into a selling relationship with Apple (but well rumored not to be its only). VZW prices for the duo match those of AT&T’s 3G iPad price. Each company has a range of 3G service plans tiered by monthly data consumption caps.
ABI Research predicts the Verizon Wireless hardware bundle will be more attractive than the AT&T iPad-only deal, especially to multi-device owners that can also connect laptops, netbooks, gaming handhelds, and other Wi-Fi enabled devices to the MiFi router while on-the-go. The marketing of the combo is also expected to attract current iPad Wi-Fi owners looking to take the iPad to more places where Wi-Fi access may not be available.