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Exactly, this doesn't hurt Apple. Even with exclusivity, the iPhone is not going to turn Sprint's boat around. It may hold them afloat for a little longer but Hesse will be gone if this hold's true within 4 weeks.

Why would apple traders care about this? either way true or not apple is getting a good deal no matter what
 
So -- now, connect the dots:

1.) Sprint comes to Apple and asks them to make a 4G WiMAX iPhone 5 for their network. They negotiate, Apple agrees but only after Sprint agrees to pay for the entire operation.

2.) Apple announces iOS5 with a secret lead-feature -- Assistant / Siri voice integration -- that requires the A5 chip.

3.) The LTE / 4G chipsets for Verizon & AT&T can't be made to work to Apple standards in time for the traditional iPhone release in Summer '11.

4.) Apple begins work on an updated iPhone 4S, with A5 chipset, to allow a full-featured release of iOS5 across all carriers.

5.) The WiMAX iP5 is ready for release ahead of schedule from the LTE iP5

6.) Apple announces WiMAX iP5 for Sprint and A-5 enabled iP4S for Verizon and AT&T in October of 2011 -- allowing them to show off their lead feature (Siri) and release iOS5 to all carriers simultaneously.

7.) Sprint gets "exclusive" iP5 for Holiday season 2011

8.) Sometime in 2012, iP5 is released with LTE chips for AT&T and Verizon.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stoutman11
HELLO!! I WILL POST IT AGAIN

Actually this could work out really well for Apple and if WSJ reports it then it has credibility. Here is the scenario!:

Apple gets guaranteed sales for the next 2-4 years from sprint. Sprint gets iphone 5 exclusive for 3-5 months then 2012 all carriers get iphone 5 along with the iphone 4s that will be released next week. I would give some company this small window of exclusiveness for 3+ years of guarnateed sales!

ATT and verizon and everyone else can get the phone in Jan 2012. They would not be losing any sales u would just have to wait a few more months if you want it on your carrier.

Except that Apple doesnt need to do this in order to get this deal. Sprint would do anything to get the iPhone. They are fighting for survival. Giving them an exclusive sales period sounds like Apple is the desperate one.
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Your right they dont NEED too but think about it. Apple can only make so many phones in3-4 months a few million at most. Why not give them all to sprint for 3-4 months to have long term gauranteed sales many years out. They are going to sell them regardless so why not get this huge financial incentive and sell them all to sprint. Apple doesnt know what its sales will be in 2 years but this deal guarntees sales for them because maybe in 2-3 years it (iphone) wont be as popular. The rest of the world/US will be going crazy seeing the phone in sprint customers hands and in spring kiosks.

They make more money doing it this way in my opinion even though they dont NEED to.

More likely Steve says buy $20 bil worth of iPhones and we will consider cutting you in on our valuable handset.
 
I would call it a marketing blunder to give the long-anticipated 5 to a new to the party carrier that spent three years doing all it could to slam the iPhone in its advertising and at the same time pissing all over the installed base.

BS. Sprint has NEVER slammed the iPhone directly. You know who did? Verizon! people have such short term memory, remember the AWFUL 'There's a MAP for that?' Verizon got sued because of those ads that mocked iPhone / AT&T

As much as I hate AT&T, I have to say they are the 'team that has been on side since day one', NOT Verizon
 
The $20B contract doesn't need to mention any exclusivity. There's no one else but Sprint who can or wants to sell a wimax capable iPhone. The product becomes exclusive by default.

There is no other option for Apple, since the world+LTE chips aren't ready for volume production yet.

ok so... there might be an exclusive SPRINT IPHONE just like there is a Verizon iPhone thats not the same as the ATT model. all that means is Sprint HAD to pay big bucks to get Apple to even bother making a phone for their weird ass service. NO WAY IN HELL does that mean that a sprint iPhone will be better then the other 2 (or one since its expected to work on ATT and V)
NO WAY in hell would that ****** little carrier be getting better goods then the Biggest carriers in the nation.
 
It's a gamble because they will be re-tooling factories (and their own intellect) to build an iPhone that runs on only 1 network in the world (a very big investment), a network that is used by a company that is a couple missteps away from bankruptcy. Apple stands to lose a handful of its cash if Sprint goes down in about 6-12 months.

Only if Sprint didn't prepay, in cold hard cash, all of Apple's extra R&D and tooling, etc., costs. Then all Apple has to do is to control inventory levels so they aren't stuck with much inventory of these weird models if/when Sprint takes a dive. But if Sprint doesn't go under, Apple gets to take a pile of their profits.

Plus, a de-facto exclusive on some fashionable looking iPhone model might be what it takes to keep Sprint from going down within the next 6-9 months. After that, bets are off.

Add to that, that if Sprint stays alive longer term, the other carriers will have to be more competitive in negotiating with Apple. A win for Apple all around.
 
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YOU signed a 2 year agreement! Why in the world would you feel entitled to upgrade before 2 years? When you enter into a contract, those are the breaks. Deal with it. (btw, it only costs a few bucks to break the contract - much less than the subsidized value you reaped)

It is true that in the US we do sign two year agreements with cellphone carriers. However, with AT&T and Verizon... you're typically upgrade eligible within 18 months into your 24 month contract. Just saying.
 
You know... since Murdock got his claws into...

WSJ - I don't believe they are above whoring about for clicks....

Unless they tell us who's phone they have tapped, I am calling BS!:)
 
A lot of resident pundits will be eating their words tomorrow.

There isn't a newspaper or reporting agency out there that is always right, but the Wall Street Journal is pretty close. They are the source of choice when it comes to money matters. Anyone who's worked in finance knows the credibility and influence of the Journal Worldwide.

Fasten your seat belts Apple is gonna get in your shorts over this one, if you're not with Sprint.

Don't believe it? Then don't be surprised when you feel the pain.
 
I can see this happening. From what I got from the article was that the WiMax iphone 5 will be a Sprint exclusive at launch. Why? because nobody else uses WiMax. Apple wants faster than 3g speeds, but they don't want to sacrifice design and quality to get it. The industry is heading toward LTE, and there are already many LTE phones out there. They need to update their lines with SOMETHING and so they made a WiMAX version of the phone (and 4GS) to release now to wet the appetites while the REAL iphone 5 coming out on ATT and Verizon.

If the rumor is true, Apple will never say that the iphone 5 is a Sprint "Exclusive". But say that the AT&T and Verizon Phones will be delayed until next year.

We've seen many articles saying that the tech is not out there for LTE to included into the Iphone 5 at the moment, but at the rate that its evolving the chips will be available early next year.

Personally I'd wait a couple months for an LTE iphone 5 than get an iphone 5 without LTE this month.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

NO-epic fail-rumors r painful!
 
So -- now, connect the dots:

1.) Sprint comes to Apple and asks them to make a 4G WiMAX iPhone 5 for their network. They negotiate, Apple agrees but only after Sprint agrees to pay for the entire operation.

2.) Apple announces iOS5 with a secret lead-feature -- Assistant / Siri voice integration -- that requires the A5 chip.

3.) The LTE / 4G chipsets for Verizon & AT&T can't be made to work to Apple standards in time for the traditional iPhone release in Summer '11.

4.) Apple begins work on an updated iPhone 4S, with A5 chipset, to allow a full-featured release of iOS5 across all carriers.

5.) The WiMAX iP5 is ready for release ahead of schedule from the LTE iP5

6.) Apple announces WiMAX iP5 for Sprint and A-5 enabled iP4S for Verizon and AT&T in October of 2011 -- allowing them to show off their lead feature (Siri) and release iOS5 to all carriers simultaneously.

7.) Sprint gets "exclusive" iP5 for Holiday season 2011

8.) Sometime in 2012, iP5 is released with LTE chips for AT&T and Verizon.

This all makes sense if you dont consider the backlash of the loyalists who want the iphone day one from ATT. Granted they, we, would probably all still buy the new phone in 2012, but we would be unhappy about the appearence of a new commer getting the headstart. If anything, I think they would announce that SPrint comes online in 2012 and wait to launch until ATT/Verzon (certainly ATT) chip sets were ready.
 
By putting an artificial limit on the amount of 5's they could sell. They would really be selling themselves short.

The other carriers will get the 5 though ... later. And they will sell like hotcakes then too.

Just think ... Apple could have two seasons of selling the iPhone 5 as fast as they can make it.
 
Seems unlikely that Apple would be an at&t exclusive for 3+ years, add Verizon, then suddenly give Sprint exclusivity of its iPhone 5. And WIMAX?! Nah.

The only thing that convinces me that this is true is that it's so bold. So wild it has to be true?!
 
A lot of resident pundits will be eating their words tomorrow.

There isn't a newspaper or reporting agency out there that is always right, but the Wall Street Journal is pretty close. They are the source of choice when it comes to money matters. Anyone who's worked in finance knows the credibility and influence of the Journal Worldwide.

Fasten your seat belts Apple is gonna get in your shorts over this one, if you're not with Sprint.

Don't believe it? Then don't be surprised when you feel the pain.

Even if the WSJ is right, nothing in their story is new except for the huge price Sprint had to pay to get the iPhone. We already heard Sprint was getting the iPhone. What we didn't know was they had to pony up $20B to get it. WSJ does NOT mention exclusivity.
 
A Murdoch sourced piece of information would never be complete BS...

They're as reliable as the Onion. So now we have rumors that say we're definitely not getting a redesigned phone, one thats says we are getting a redesigned phone, and this last minute one to squeeze in there that we're only kinda getting a redesigned iPhone. What else can they possibly come up with? It seems like every angle has been covered. It's top time for advertising.
 
A lot of resident pundits will be eating their words tomorrow.

There isn't a newspaper or reporting agency out there that is always right, but the Wall Street Journal is pretty close. They are the source of choice when it comes to money matters. Anyone who's worked in finance knows the credibility and influence of the Journal Worldwide.

Fasten your seat belts Apple is gonna get in your shorts over this one, if you're not with Sprint.

Don't believe it? Then don't be surprised when you feel the pain.

to be honest i don't remember ever reading anything from the WSJ thats backed up by facts. they have plenty of bs stories. and here they are also commenting on this and that on the new iPhone but do they know anything for a fact? is it tuesday yet? no
 
...laugh like when you were in fifth grade and someone used a French word that you didn't understand other than to think that it was a bit "naughty"?
 
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