RadioShack To Sell iPhone
In a brief press release today, RadioShack announced that it will begin selling the iPhone starting with the Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City markets later this month. RadioShack plans to sell the iPhone across the U.S. in 2010.
Context & Ripple Effects
When the iPhone launched on AT&T in June 2007, Apple's distribution ran through its own stores and the carrier's network. Two years on, RadioShack's announcement extends that channel to one of America's largest consumer-electronics chains, starting with Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City before an intended nationwide rollout in 2010.
First-order effects
- RadioShack stores in the two launch markets gain an anchor smartphone product, giving shoppers a third major retail path to the iPhone alongside Apple and AT&T.
- AT&T gets incremental subscriber reach through thousands of RadioShack storefronts without adding company-owned retail.
Second-order effects
- RadioShack accelerates its repositioning from parts-and-accessories counter into a handset destination, raising the stakes with big-box electronics competitors for carrier partnerships.
- Apple's demonstrated willingness to widen distribution pressures other national retailers to negotiate equivalent terms or risk ceding walk-in smartphone traffic.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, exclusive-launch economics give way to a broad-channel model where carriers and Apple compete on placement inside independent chains — market access governed by who controls the shelf.
- Regional availability gaps shrink as national chains become the default distribution fabric for flagship phones, weakening any single retailer's gatekeeping power.
The trend: Flagship smartphone distribution is moving from exclusive Apple-and-carrier control toward broad national retail chains, with each new partner normalizing wider access.