Apple and Best Buy Will Match $479 Price for iPad Air with Walmart

If you’re looking to save a Jackson on a new iPad Air with 16GB of storage then you might want to thank Walmart. According to 9to5Mac both Best Buy and Apple will be price matching Walmart’s $479 price on the 16GB model of the new iPad Air that went on sale today. This is only for in store purchases only, so if you are ordering online or for Personal Pickup you won’t get the deal. This means you’ll have to make a trek to your local Best Buy or Apple Store near you to take advantage of the $20 savings.

Keep in mind you’ll probably have to provide proof of the discounted price in order to take advantage of the deal. So, you might want to get ready to do some ad clipping, or at least have the price cut downloaded onto a mobile device that you can show. Those cellular and WiFi networks can be tricky.

The iPad Air is the fifth generation 9.7 inch iPad and features the new A7 chip with the M7 chip running alongside. In addition, Apple has shaved weight off the the iPad with the new device now coming in at only 1lb. The form factor resembles that of the iPad mini, with a thinner bezel. Pricing starts at  $499 for the Wi-Fi model with 16 GB storage and goes up to $929 for the LTE model with 128GB of storage.

Note that only the 16GB WiFi model of the iPad Air is discounted.

I ordered a 64GB iPad Air with AT&T LTE via Personal Pickup and managed to pick up the device at 8AM at a local Apple Store in Chicago. There were only about 20 people in line when I arrived at 7:40 am. And as you can see from this picture the store was not very crowded once it opened. An Apple Store rep told me they had quite a few Personal Pickup orders and they were interested to see when those customers showed up throughout the day.

I’ll say this, when it can be used for a product launch, Personal Pickup is much more civilized. I doubt we have that option with the iPad mini with Retina Display which is due to go on sale later in November, with word out that supplies will be constrained.