Apple iPhone for $99 at Wal-Mart? Hogwash on Aisle 7

Updated from 3:42 p.m. EST

And so now they tell us. Apple's(AAPL Quote) iPhone will sell for the regular price at Wal-Mart(WMT Quote) or, to be precise, a couple of bucks less than you can get it directly from AT&T(T Quote) or Apple. Only problem is just a few weeks ago the business media was full of busy telling us about how the iPhone would sell for $99 at Wal-Mart -- 100 bucks less.

Well, that's not the only problem.

First, let's review what we were fed a few short weeks ago. Look at this representative headline from the Mercury News:

"iPhones coming to Wal-Mart; maybe for $99."

Well, uh, maybe not. But the lead dug in deeper:

"Apple's red-hot iPhone will soon be available at what might seem an unlikely place: your local Wal-Mart. And you might see it there at one of the store's legendary "Everyday low prices -- "$99."

Same went for a Bloomberg story entitled: "Apple to Sell iPhones in Wal-Mart Stores This Month," and, of course, we soon had reports -- like one from Fox News(NWS Quote) -- picking up on the "reporting" from the Mercury News and Bloomberg to play echo chamber to the "coming news." Here is Fox's headline, which helped solidify the rumor:

"Wal-Mart may soon start selling a $99 Apple iPhone, according to several reports."

And you can really forget those maybes with Fox, which saw fit to run with this quote:

"A $99, Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable," Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu said. "One of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line."

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