• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 9, 2009

The typical Radio Shack outlet may not resemble an Apple Store, but soon they'll have something in common -- the iPhone. The electronics chain disclosed late last week it will begin selling the signature Apple device later this month at stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City metropolitan areas later this month.

Getting the iPhone is the company's latest -- and most significant -- bid to date to grow its wireless business and boost its hipness quotient among consumers. Radio Shack in August launched a campaign rebranding itself as "The Shack" to help update its image and began selling phones from T-Mobile in addition to Sprint and AT&T.

Last week, it was also tapped by Target to sell mobile phones at the retailer's stores nationwide. And in a further attempt at gaining hipster cred, a new 15-second holiday ad RadioShack has started running features a background track by rising Philadelphia band Cold Cave. And now it has the iPhone.

RadioShack's recent efforts to upgrade may be starting to pay off. Its third-quarter sales fell 3.1% to $990 million from $1.02 billion a year earlier, but that easily beat analyst expectations of $959 million. (The rebranding effort cut into sales.) And as of Monday morning, the company's stock was trading up more than 14% to about $20.25 a share following news of the Target deal and addition of the iPhone.

Investors are likely betting that if the device can do for RadioShack what it's done for Apple and AT&T, it can only mean increased revenue. With a 24% drop in net income in the third quarter from a year, however, the electronics chain will have to pull off a much bigger makeover to match the 47% profit of Apple's most recent quarter.