Wal-Mart has announced that Apple's newest iPhones will be available for sale at its stores without a contract.
Buyers of iPhone 5s and 5c can talk, text and surf the Web on their devices via Straight Talk Wireless for a fee starting at $45 a month, according to that firm's parent company, Tracfone Wireless, whose no-contract service plans are available for phones sold at Walmart locations.
That price doesn't include the phone, however. According to Tracfone, the price on a no-contract 16-gigabyte iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s will be $549 and $649, respectively.
Long considered a premium brand with products that many consumers aspire to own, Apple now aims to sell iPhones to a broader market, as it did with the iPad, according to CNET Editor-in-Chief Lindsey Turrentine.
"I think that it's something that they need to do to get that 5c out there," she said. "A lot of people do consider Apple too expensive. I think this is their way of combatting that, right? 'We're selling it at Walmart, no contract—you can afford it.' "
—By CNBC's Althea Chang