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Sprint Commits to Buying $20 Billion Worth of iPhones, To Get Redesigned iPhone 5 Exclusively?
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I can see it now.
Tim Cook's first performance as the head of Apple.
Yes, I'd like to introduce the iPhone 5. Yes, I'm going to limit it to Sprint's 30 million contract subscribers. Yes, we'll exclude AT&T's and Verizon's approximately 150 million subscribers out for a while. Yes, that is Steve Jobs walking on stage to take my job back and save Apple.
Tim Cook's first performance as the head of Apple.
Yes, I'd like to introduce the iPhone 5. Yes, I'm going to limit it to Sprint's 30 million contract subscribers. Yes, we'll exclude AT&T's and Verizon's approximately 150 million subscribers out for a while. Yes, that is Steve Jobs walking on stage to take my job back and save Apple.
Especially if Assistant is a 4S/5 exclusive. Then the only difference(s) are form factor and maybe radio.
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I see nothing about a denial in there.
edit: Ninja'd by several.
Interesting stock manipulation on BGR's part though
Yeah, maybe they were shorting the stock!
so new question? since when is macrumors so concerned about my language? to a point to where they remove my posts and star words? really??
Sprint's market cap is just north of $8 billion. Not even HPs board would commit to a deal 4 times your market cap.
First, I don't think this will be. Then again Apple have made many boneheaded calls before. Remember how they cut out basic phone and data features and slowed the evolution of the iPhone globally just because american based ATT had a crappy service and economy. We will soon see what took apple so long or if they had this iPhone in a drawer for months before release. Hopefully it will blow our minds.
This is not like AT&T exclusivity because it was only exclusive for such an extended period in the US. The would shut out not only everyone in the US not on Sprint but everyone outside the country as well.
If it is true perhaps the next iPhone itteration bringing the revised iPhone to the rest of the carriers would resume the traditional early summer release schedule.
If it is true perhaps the next iPhone itteration bringing the revised iPhone to the rest of the carriers would resume the traditional early summer release schedule.
Apple if you want to piss off your loyal people make this deal! I got with AT&T because of iPhone. I've had every single version of iPhone since day 1. If AT&T doesn't get the iPhone 5 I'm going to blow my stack. I buy everything Apple, and that includes, my new iMac, iPad 2, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, and a grip of other stuff. Be fair damn it! Don't be greedy..... If you pull this iPhone 5 to Sprint crap I'm not buying a sub par iPhone 4S what bull crap.
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)
BGR's post is pure and simple LINKBAIT!
And it's working, let's stop talking about it. None of it will play out.
The WSJ elements are spot-on I'm sure though.
BGR's post is pure and simple LINKBAIT!
And it's working, let's stop talking about it. None of it will play out.
The WSJ elements are spot-on I'm sure though.
And if he learned anything from his master Steve he will sell you WiMAX as the new be-all-end-all LTE alternative that makes all other radio stuff obsolete.
Do you remember the time when all Apple apologists were arguing that MMS on the original iPhone is not needed (as you can use eMail instead and nobody uses MMS anyway). Or that 3G was not included due to battery life constraints (while the rest of the world had it).
Now take a look at LTE development, take a look at current and announced phones and see the plot thicken. Yes, there will be a Sprint-exclusive iPhone5 - and I bet you there are million of customers just willing to drop the cash for having the newest and greatest gadget no matter what network it is on.
So let me get this straight. Yesterday there was absolutely no way a re-designed iPhone even existed, only a spec bumped iPhone in the iPhone 4 case. Then out of no where the iPhone 5 exists and Sprint has the exclusive? Sorry I call BS.
In my experience the truth in what's revealed is usually a shade of gray between what the rumors said. That being said, I can easily see a re-designed iPhone 5 with HSPA+ for ATT and WiMax for Sprint, then Verizon getting the shaft until next year.
In any case, I don't see another iPhone release until next fall after tomm.
In my experience the truth in what's revealed is usually a shade of gray between what the rumors said. That being said, I can easily see a re-designed iPhone 5 with HSPA+ for ATT and WiMax for Sprint, then Verizon getting the shaft until next year.
In any case, I don't see another iPhone release until next fall after tomm.
Even with Sprint paying, I can't see this being justifiable in terms of manufacturing costs..
If the iPhone 5 is a new design, why limit the economies of scale like this? There's going to be the costs of development and testing, licensing, and retooling costs for a redesigned iPhone...Likely more so considering the WiMax, that Sprint seems to be ditching for LTE.. iPhone 5 exclusive for Sprint for even one fiscal quarter seems like it would reflect poorly on the balance sheet (I'm not an accountant, nor do I play one on TV) even if Sprint could come up with the cash up front..
Of course, if Apple makes two versions of the iPhone 5, one for Sprint's WiMax network and one CDMA/GSM world phone... Sprint has iPhone 5 in US exclusively... then the economies of scale work out, but there's likely bad customer backlash in US.. (people stuck in contract w/ Verizon/ATT that qualify for full or partial subsidy) So, does that really make sense in the long term (where Apple lives) ?
*IF* Sprint has any deal close to this, it for an "exclusive" WiMax iPhone 4S, with everyone else getting the iPhone 5. Same internals across the board, except the Sprint version, lowest scale, has different WiMax capable radios for the Sprint network.. The 4/4S design has already met it's economies of scale, and I'm sure there will be a cheep iPhone 4 still for sale on Version and AT&T for $99, so this would make much more sense.
I think it's doubtful we'll see either WiMax or LTE until Apple can make a phone that supports either/both that meets it's power consumption requirements, as well as economies of scale..That just may have to wait until this time in 2012 and the iPhone 5GS... And who knows, maybe the iPhone 5GS will be the one phone for all networks? (won't hold my breath)
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
could it be that IP5 is to be released to all major carriers: however, 4G will be exclusive to the sprint - the rest would have 3G HSPA+ and 4G when LTE is available
Heck, 2/3 of the globe are lucky to get edge/ 3G!
Heck, 2/3 of the globe are lucky to get edge/ 3G!
How about 20 Billion Dollars? Verizon didn't pay this kind of money to get the iPhone. I'm not saying that I'm 100% convinced that the exclusivity part is true but I can see how it can be possible. And we're not talking about any more than about 6 months. It would also make more sense if they made a wimax model specifically for Sprint. If Apple knows that they will sell 100% of these Spring phones they have nothing to lose. Who knows, maybe Apple have already figured out the battery problem as it applies to 4G?
I'm not betting on the exclusivity part but I sure am glad to hear that the iPhone is definitely coming to Sprint. I'll be first on line
A few million (even 10 million) doesn't make this a good deal for either Apple or Sprint.
Polls when Verizon got the iPhone 4 showed HUGE numbers of subscribers who were waiting to get the iPhone 5. Verizon subscribers are loyal and most will to probably jump ship to Sprint, so leaving Verizon out of the iPhone 5 now would certainly limit phone sales this year.
If even only 20% (probably a very low #) of AT&T and Verizon subscribers upgraded this year, it would still be more phones than Sprint committed to OVER 4 years.
Apple knows the iPhone popularity won't last forever. It wouldn't make any business sense to give Sprint exclusivity now to get a commitment for 30 million phones over 4 years versus launching on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint this month and selling over 30 million phones by the end of the year.