Apple and Best Buy have agreed to begin selling both the standard AppleCare protection plan for Macs and the more premium AppleCare+ for iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch through Best Buy stores, according to sources. The plans call for Best Buy to begin offering the AppleCare plans in its stores at checkout around the week of September 14th, just ahead of the iPhone 6S launch. This will mark a notable expansion of the Apple and Best Buy relationship, and Best Buy will become one of the only retailers, aside from select U.S. carriers, to offer AppleCare outside of an Apple Store.
The AppleCare plans sold through Best Buy will operate identically to the offerings sold directly from Apple, but they will also combine in Best Buy’s standard warranty. Customers who purchase an Apple product along with AppleCare through Best Buy will be able to service their devices either directly via Apple or through Best Buy itself. Apple’s next-generation iPhone will likely go on sale around mid-September following a September 9th debut, and the newly added presence of AppleCare at Best Buy will improve the buying experience for some of those buying a new iPhone outside of an Apple Store.
Best Buy had been reluctant to agreeing to selling AppleCare until now in order to promote its own in-house warranty services, according to a source. For its part, Apple has been rapidly improving its AppleCare offerings over the past couple of years, increasing the service’s availability worldwide, improving pricing plus purchasing windows, and expanding the offering to new products. Apple has also been working on ways to create an AppleCare+ plan for Macs, which would mean accidental damage support for laptops, but it appears such an offering is likely still far off.
