Best Buy to Sell iPhones

On Tuesday Best Buy announced that it will become the first independent retailer to sell Apple's iPhone, starting on September 7th. This will allow Best Buy to add itself to the list of those being criticized over the iPhone's 3G performance.

Sorry, what I meant to say is that Best Buy will be able to sell Apple's hot-selling iPhone 3G in its 970 full-size stores and 16 smaller Best Buy Mobile stores. The announcement follows closely the announcement that Best Buy has completed upgrades of its Best Buy Mobile departments in each of its full-size stores.

Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile, said:

"We had a lot of work to do, obviously, to get in a position where Apple and AT&T would feel good about Best Buy Mobile carrying it, and that's what we've done in the last 18 months."

There's yet another independent retailer that sells AT&T cell phones: Radio Shack. It's been rumored that Radio Shack would also join the iPhone retailer parade.

Since Best Buy is also the only independent retailer to sell the Sprint Instinct, another hot-selling touch-screen-only phone (but CDMA ... and need I say, not the iPhone?), it will be interesting to see if the iPhone poaches sales off that other phone. I wonder how Sprint feels right about now?