Best Buy Will Start Selling the IPhone in September

Best Buy will become the first retail chain outside of Apple and AT&T to sell the iPhone in the U.S., an Apple spokesperson confirmed for Macworld on Tuesday.

First reported by AP, Best Buy will begin selling the iPhone on September 7 in 970 full-size stores and 16 smaller Best Buy Mobile stores. Apple began selling Macs and iPods in about 170 Best Buy stores during the fiscal third quarter, for a total of 570; it hopes to be up to about 600 stores by end of summer.

When purchasing an iPhone through Best Buy, your AT&T account will be setup in-store, making the process very similar to what you would experience at an Apple or AT&T retail store.

Apple retail stores have been a boon for the company, allowing more people around the U.S. and the world to experience the Mac, iPod and the iPhone. Apple's retail stores saw $1.44 billion in revenue in the last quarter alone.

On July 11 Apple updated the iPhone, releasing the iPhone 3G, iPhone software 2.0 and the App Store. iPhone 3G sold more than one million units in the first three days it was available. The App Store saw similar success. Launching with over 500 applications available for download, Apple had more than 10 million application downloads in the first three days.