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Doesn't make sense for Sprint to have exclusivity only for iP5 for 6 or 12 months: what happens after iP5 exclusivity, in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th years of the 4-year commitment?

Does Apple commit itself to giving Sprint iP6, iP7 & iP8 exclusively to Sprint?


Sprint may well be willing to bet its future on iPhone, but is Apple stupid enough to bet its future on Sprint? I don't think so.

They might, just like the did with the Pre. I'm not say I believe this to be true, but of course it is a possibility.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/02/palm-pre-exclus/
 
My math is right, your reading comprehension is wrong. I said that Apple will not kiss away 90% of 20 million unit sales.


I know that. That's why I divided 30.5 million by 16 quarters (four years) to arrive at 1.9 million units per quarter.

Do you guys need coffee?

I read it wrong because I feel your conclusion is highly flawed. Apple would be nowhere near foregoing that many unit sales by having a handset unique to Sprint for a few months. They're basically saying "Buy this now, or wait for 4G in a few months. If you must have 4G now, buy it on Sprint."

All that would do is delay some sales, not lose them entirely. The launch of a potential wimax phone on sprint won't make a 28nm LTE chip come available any faster.
 
Would Apple really partner with a sinking ship (i.e. Sprint) and risk the negative press if Sprint goes under (which they could very well do as they are spending $$$$$ for exclusivity)?

Maybe they would, but something tells me Apple doesn't want to partner with a near last-place carrier.... even for some $$$.

Apple by staying with Verizon and AT&T would make $$$ just from people upgrading. Is Sprint going to more than cover the $$ that apple will lose from AT&T and Verizon iPhone 5 sales?

ATT and Verizon still get a 5th gen phone with all the processing power, camera detail, etc. All Sprint gets is a bigger number, 4G and a new form factor. That doesnt seem like too big a deal to make ATT/Verizon sink like a stone or lose THAT much money
 
I seriously doubt that Apple would incorporate WiMax because;

A) It's a dead-end. Sprint is moving to LTE by 2014(?)
B) WiMax is the destroyer of battery life.
 
...you're not factoring in the currently rumored 4, 4S, and 3GS. For sake of argument, lets ignore the first and third.

Lets not. The 3GS is the second best selling mobile phone. Second. If the iPhone 4 didn't knock the 3GS out of the top 5 after more than 1 year of it being surpassed, how the h*ck is some Sprint model going to do that to both the 3GS and a cost-reduced i4 in just one or two quarters? No way!
 
No you don't. I can attest to good customer service, I haven't has a problem with that in years, The network is fine (Where I live in the North East) and 4G is getting better all the time. I live in a suburb and I have 4G.

I stand by what I said. Maybe Sprint works good in your area. Come to Boston and I'll take you places 10-15 miles outside the city with no 4G at all and poor 3G coverage. I have read many articles about Sprints customer service and it's all over the internet. They have poor in building coverage due to the PCS frequency they operate on. I'm glad it works for you, overall they don't have a good reputation for service or customer service, that's why they lose customers quarter after quarter. It has nothing to do with the iPhone.
 
Uh..I doubt it. This would be a huge mistake on Apple's part. I can see Sprint being brought on as a carrier but I call BS on the exclusivity.
 
Note there are 2 rumors here.

1. WSJ: Sprint committing $20 billion to Apple
2. BGR: Sprint as an iPhone 5 exclusive

They are separate sources, and honestly, of separate believability. But tied together in reasoning. Sprint is supposedly paying this $20 billion to get exclusivity.

arn

I believe #1. I don't believe #2.
 
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I can't see Apple bringing out a phone that is only exclusive to a US carrier and putting tech in it to only work in the US fully. That in itself does not make business sense... I could be wrong though. However many devices are announced tomorrow they will all be available in the US and Europe. I can't understand why there will be 2 phones as the 4 is good enough in it's own right and is still future proof as a low end phone. I hope we get a new form factor phone tomorrow but I'm not getting my hopes up. I still reckon an LTE version will not be available till next year as I can see this tech going in an iPad along with an A6 processor first. 4G is not supported in the UK yet until next year and I think that's when Apple will make there move worldwide. This is just my opinion not me starting a flaming session :D
 
...let me clarify, that is if they're trying to get exclusive rights, if they're just another player in the iPhone game, they should do alright, but if they are the only provider of the iPhone 5, without major overhaul to their network, they will be dead within 12 months.

Reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote:

Did you hear about that great restaurant?

"Yeah, nobody goes there anymore because it is too crowded."

You can't actually be dead in 12 months because of too many customers. There might be complaints, but as you know contracts are very hard to get out of, so as long as you keep paying your monthly fee, Sprint will be fine with lots of new iPhone customers.

I'd like to hear someone explain the technological feasibility of doing a WiMax phone. Unless there is some justification, like battery life, then I can't see Apple doing this over an LTE phone.
 
Isn't it obvious? iPhone 5 for LTE will be delayed for 3 months until low-power LTE chips are available, but it will be ready to go on WiMax well before then, which means Sprint. Apple agreed to make a WiMax version if Sprint agreed to purchase $20 million worth of phones to make it worth Apple's investment in design and production costs.
I read it wrong because I feel your conclusion is highly flawed. Apple would be nowhere near foregoing that many unit sales by having a handset unique to Sprint for a few months. They're basically saying "Buy this now, or wait for 4G in a few months. If you must have 4G now, buy it on Sprint."

All that would do is delay some sales, not lose them entirely. The launch of a potential wimax phone on sprint won't make a 28nm LTE chip come available any faster.
Edit: what he said.
 
The problem with this is that if Sprint only had exclusivity for 6 months everyone would just wait. No one wants an iPhone bad enough to go to sprint. At least I don't.
 
The problem with this is that if Sprint only had exclusivity for 6 months everyone would just wait. No one wants an iPhone bad enough to go to sprint. At least I don't.

I sure as hell don't. My AT&T coverage isn't anything spectacular but it's still leaps and bounds ahead of Sprint in my area.
 
I seriously doubt that Apple would incorporate WiMax because;

A) It's a dead-end. Sprint is moving to LTE by 2014(?)
B) WiMax is the destroyer of battery life.

WiMax is already rolled out mostly nationwide for Sprint. It's not being turned off when Sprint goes LTE. These are Or's, not And's. Sprint will likely have a mixed LTE/WiMax network through their partnerships through the teens, most likely.

A bigger phone can also mean a bigger battery.
 
The problem with this is that if Sprint only had exclusivity for 6 months everyone would just wait. No one wants an iPhone bad enough to go to sprint. At least I don't.

Seriously, Sprint is not that bad, and just because you wouldn't switch to sprint doesn't mean no one would - in fact, there are quite a few people in this thread that already said they would go Sprint.
 
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r.j.s said:
The problem with this is that if Sprint only had exclusivity for 6 months everyone would just wait. No one wants an iPhone bad enough to go to sprint. At least I don't.

Seriously, Sprint is not that bad, and just because you wouldn't switch to sprint doesn't mean no one would - in fact, there are quite a few people in this thread that already said they would go Sprint.

I'm going from ATT to Sprint...
 
Seriously, Sprint is not that bad, and just because you wouldn't switch to sprint doesn't mean no one would - in fact, there are quite a few people in this thread that already said they would go Sprint.

Don't forget, AT&T's exclusivity nearly made it the #1 carrier in the US. Just because a bunch of tech informed people here won't jump ship, doesn't mean the general public also won't.
 
My take is thats about all the customers Sprint actually has. They way they have been bleeding them, me and my family included.. crappy ass phones over the years all all. That said, 30 million iPhones equals about one free phone for each Sprint customer to keep them from leaving.
 
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r.j.s said:
The problem with this is that if Sprint only had exclusivity for 6 months everyone would just wait. No one wants an iPhone bad enough to go to sprint. At least I don't.

Seriously, Sprint is not that bad, and just because you wouldn't switch to sprint doesn't mean no one would - in fact, there are quite a few people in this thread that already said they would go Sprint.

If I can get a redesigned iPhone 5 with WiMax on Sprint with unlimited data I will jizz my pants. Unlimited data for all the traveling I do for a living with no wifi, cheaper bill each month, and new design? Count me in
 
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I can't see Apple bringing out a phone that is only exclusive to a US carrier and putting tech in it to only work in the US fully. That in itself does not make business sense... I could be wrong though. However many devices are announced tomorrow they will all be available in the US and Europe. I can't understand why there will be 2 phones as the 4 is good enough in it's own right and is still future proof as a low end phone. I hope we get a new form factor phone tomorrow but I'm not getting my hopes up. I still reckon an LTE version will not be available till next year as I can see this tech going in an iPad along with an A6 processor first. 4G is not supported in the UK yet until next year and I think that's when Apple will make there move worldwide. This is just my opinion not me starting a flaming session :D

Please tell me if you will, on what other carriers does the current Verizon CDMA iPhone 4 work on?


Oh only on Verizon, a CDMA wireless carrier in America you say? What about China? They have CDMA too! Wait, it doesn't work there either? How can Apple do such a thing? Make a single phone, that only works on a single provider, in a single country? Nah, that doesn't make any business sense!

Reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote:

Did you hear about that great restaurant?

"Yeah, nobody goes there anymore because it is too crowded."

You can't actually be dead in 12 months because of too many customers. There might be complaints, but as you know contracts are very hard to get out of, so as long as you keep paying your monthly fee, Sprint will be fine with lots of new iPhone customers.

I'd like to hear someone explain the technological feasibility of doing a WiMax phone. Unless there is some justification, like battery life, then I can't see Apple doing this over an LTE phone.

Well if I had to venture a guess I'd say that WiMax, as much as every person on this forum hates it and wishes it never existed for whatever reason, is a bit more mature than LTE as far as chipsets are concerned. Now I don't know die sizes but I know that WiMax has been around for a bit longer than LTE has.
 
I'm not sure that I buy this rumor, but I think that something out of the box will be announced tomorrow.
 
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