RadioShack announced that the Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS will be available in some of its stores this November, with a nationwide rollout to follow.
“RadioShack is pleased to announce that it will introduce Apple’s iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a limited number of company-owned stores in the Dallas-Forth Worth and New York City metropolitan areas beginning later this month,” the company wrote in a Nov. 7 statement. “RadioShack expects to introduce iPhone in stores nationwide in 2010.”
The news caused Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other investment banks to up their ratings of RadioShack stock. Credit Suisse, for example, raised its target price from $15 to $25, while Barclays Capital raised its target price from $19 to $21.
In July, RadioShack began offering T-Mobile products and services, and in August, it began further rebranding its image. In an effort to appear as a more hip electronics store, it nicknamed itself “The Shack.”
“When a brand becomes a friend, it often gets a nickname – take FedEx or Coke, for example,” said Lee Applbaum, RadioShack’s chief marketing officer, in an Aug. 3 announcement. “Our customers, associates and even the investor community have long referred to RadioShack as -The Shack,’ so we decided to embrace that fact and share it with the world.”
RadioShack currently sells Apple’s iPod, and in offering the iPhones it will join retailers Best Buy and WalMart.
The announcement additionally enables Apple to join the buzz around holiday device offerings. T-Mobile announced a holiday lineup of devices that includes three smartphones with Android, and on Nov. 6, Verizon Wireless launched the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris, both Android devices, in time for making it onto holiday wish lists.
In its fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones, which was an improvement of 7 percent over the same quarter of 2008. CEO Steve Jobs said during the earnings call, “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”