US Carriers And Retailers To Open At 8 A.M. On iPhone 5s Launch Day

In the United States, carrier stores and retail locations have confirmed that on Friday, Sept. 20, sales of both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c will commence at 8 a.m. local time. The news comes from iDownloadBlog, who was able to confirm that corporate and third-party locations for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are expected to open their doors at 8 a.m., and a number of U.S. retailers have quoted a similar opening time for Friday. It seems like Walmart and RadioShack, however, are the exceptions to this rule. First up, Walmart didn't confirm its opening times to iDownloadBlog, but the website explains that the retailer could start selling new iPhones from midnight in stores which are open 24 hours a day. Indeed, this happened last year for Apple's new iPad, with Walmart locations selling the new iDevice from 12:01 a.m. local time. RadioShack, on the other hand, is offering a far less exciting situation. According to the website, the retailer isn't planning on opening its doors until 9 a.m. on Friday, and even then iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c shipments aren't expected to reach RadioShack "until the afternoon." Our advice? It's always best to independently confirm opening times with local non-Apple retail locations for this Friday. For the most part, it seems 8 a.m. is the time many stores will be opening their doors to customers. However, a well timed phone call on Thursday afternoon is probably the best way of double-checking. See also: Apple's OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 8 Includes Updated iTunes App, Sprint Takes $100 Off The Price Of iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c For New Customers, and China Unicom iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c Reservations Pass 100,000 Handsets.