9to5Mac reports that an announcement was made at a Las Vegas trade show that GameStop will begin carrying the full line of Apple’s iOS devices in stores. GameStop has also begun accepting iOS device trade-ins for in-store credit, because of course they would. They’re seemingly accepting trade-ins before they have actually obtained stock of new iOS devices to sell, which could suggest that — aside from oh, GameStop — GameStop may be waiting for the iPhone 5 before they begin stocking new iOS items.
The stocking of iOS devices would make sense for the games-store-come-pawn-shop, as the mobile device market is technically the biggest market of gamers, albeit an extremely casual market of gamers who are outside of GameStop’s reach, which is exactly why it makes sense for GameStop to begin carrying the devices that put gamers outside of said reach.
The current rumor is that the iPhone 5 will hit this coming October, one month away, and will launch on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, though there isn’t word yet regarding how GameStop will handle device activation. If there’s one thing we can be sure of regarding how GameStop will handle selling the iOS devices, it’s that their paragraph-long sales pitch when they answer the phone is going to get a few more sentences.
