So this just came across the AP wire..

A Wal-Mart employee in Uniondale, N.Y., told The Associated Press on Monday that the store will start selling Apple’s iPhone, confirming media reports over the weekend.

The employee, who would not give his name, did not know when the phones would go on sale, and said the store had no merchandise yet. The San Jose Mercury News reported late Friday that store employees in California said the phone would be on sale by the last week of December, and maybe before Christmas.

What would it be like to buy an iPhone in Wal-mart?  Does that mean that you still need to have the phone activated when you buy it?  If so, who is going to do it?  The Wal-mart workers?  ehh.. no.  That is asking for customer service trouble.

What if Apple supplied a specialist per store?  Well, that could work, but is it worth it?  Do you really think there are enough people who are looking to buy an iPhone to go to Wal-mart to make it worth staffing those stores?

What if Apple sells the iPhone as devices like they did with the first version?  Ahh.. that might make more sense. So if we are to believe the rumors then we could see a reversal of Apple’s ‘buy turned on’ only policy.

There is one other thought though.  Each phone’s firmware is already locked to a phone number and sim such that you cannot do anything BUT buy an AT&T account.  In fact, it would make sense that it’s already in the contract. But still…ehh, a lot of work to serve a population that would mostly have access to ATT stores or Apple stores.

We’ll know soon.  Should be interesting.