Virgin Mobile US has always taken a simple approach for its products, selling them in retail locations around the country instead of relying on retail stores of its own. Now with the prepaid iPhone arriving tomorrow the company is opening Chicago retail locations in support of the device.
The mobile provider is starting with 10 locations but plans to open other prepaid stores around the country should the venture prove successful.
Virgin Mobile will continue to offer its products in Best Buy, Walmart, Target and other locations and through its own mobile website.
Sprint Wireless CEO Dan Hesse (Virgin Mobile’s parent company) said in a statement that the iPhone will “do very well on Virgin” if the company’s pre-orders are any indication for its future successes. Virgin Mobile US is only the second cellular company to start selling a prepaid version of the iPhone, following only regional wireless carrier Cricket Wireless.
Virgin Mobile will sell the 8GB version of the iPhone 4 8GB for $550 while the 16GB iPhone 4S will cost $650.
While the cost of the device is on the high-end customers will be able to pay just $35 a month for unlimited data and texting alongside a data plan that throttles at 2.5GB per month.
Building and launching Virgin Mobile retail locations based on the suspected success of a single device may appear to be a gamble however in other parts of the world, especially in locations throughout Europe the prepaid mobile platform has been a big hit thanks to higher phone costs mixed with far lower monthly charges.
