Sprint to Carry Next iPhone, Says Wall Street Journal
by Andrew Cunningham on August 24, 2011 11:30 AM ESTSprint will be joining AT&T and Verizon in carrying Apple's next iPhone, reports the Wall Street Journal citing "people familiar with the matter." This would make Sprint the third major US carrier to sell the iPhone, leaving T-Mobile (a potential AT&T acquisition target) as the last carrier without the device.
This move would certainly make sense for Apple, who has been offering the iPhone through more carriers both domestically and internationally after a few years of carrier exclusivity agreements, and since Sprint uses the same CDMA network as Verizon, Apple wouldn't need to make new hardware to make this happen.
Likewise, Sprint would much benefit from having the iPhone on its store shelves, and it might help to stop or slow the loss of its subscribers to other carriers, though on the flip side, a more competitive Sprint could help the AT&T-T-Mobile deal get past federal regulators.
Apple's next iPhone has yet to be officially named or revealed, but the best available data points to a reveal in September and a release in September or October.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
13 Comments
View All Comments
fhaddad78 - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
I just recently cancelled my cell phone plan through Verizon because I'm sick of the crap the cell phone companies are pulling. Just like AT&T's new move to eliminate all text messaging plans except for the unlimited. So you either pay per text or pay $20 for unlimited. I don't have a problem with the idea if the price to send a text was more reasonable. But to charge a comparable rate to sending a letter in the mail is just plain greed.I think Sprint should try something unique with their service to entice customers to switch. It's not just about the lowest prices. How cool with it be if Sprint embraced modding of phones and worked with the community to help promote it. And offered things that could only be done on rooted phones. Just an idea. There are probably better ones.
Anyway, I hope the iPhone helps them to retain customers and to gain new ones. But I think the company should look to new avenues for ways to gain market share.
Impulses - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Sprint's been looking to differentiate more and more... They seem to be destined to be the new home of the Nexus line if T-Mobile is bought, look also at the Google Voice & Sprint integration. I think the notion that they don't have a good phone selection has been overturned for a year or two now (Pre, Hero, EVO 4G, Epic, Nexus S, EVO 3D, Photon), hopefully they keep it up.anishannayya - Thursday, September 1, 2011 - link
If they offered unlocked phones like that, then they wouldn't get any money from the stupid people that use the built in bloatware.Something that is awesome that Sprint does is their 1 yr contract length (if you have a family plan). That is great, because you get to upgrade you phone when you want to, instead of having to wait for the contract to expire.