Sunday December 28 onwards, Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G will be available at special kiosks deployed in the Home Entertainment departments of 2,493 of 3,200 locations of Wal-Mart Stores Inc - the iPhones are already available at the Apple stores; Best Buy; and AT&T. The Wal-Mart price of the devices will be only $2 under list - at $197 and $297 for the 8GB and 16GB iPhones respectively.

In comparison, while Apple and AT&T sell the devices for $199 and $299, the Best Buy's sale prices for the iPhones are $189 and $289. As such, the prices announced by Wal-Mart are fairly in line with the prices of iPhone 3G elsewhere. Wal-Mart said stores match the price of "any local competitor's advertised store price on the same item within the same promotional period."

Similar to the purchase of iPhone from any other outlet, while buying it from Wal-Mart too customers would be required to commit to a two-year contract with AT&T. Even before the Wal-mart deal was announced, Piper Jaffray, analyst Gene Munster, wrote in a research note that the deal could significantly increase the number of iPhones sold in the US. According to Munster, the Apple/Wal-Mart association would result in the iPhones sales increasing to almost 50 million the coming year - which would be a boost of 10%.

The fact that the deal comes a few days after the holiday season gift-buying rush is somewhat surprising - had the deal been worked out before the companies could have easily cashed in on the holiday season!