Sprint Commits to Buying $20 Billion Worth of iPhones

Submitted by Dan; October 04, 2011


The Wall Street Journal reports the Sprint is agreeing to purchase 30.5 million units over the next four years regardless of whether they are purchased by customers or not. Do the math, at $655 per iPhone it's just shy of $20-billion dollars -- $19,977,500,000 to be exact.

Mr. Hesse told the board the carrier would have to agree to purchase at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years—a commitment of $20 billion at current rates—whether or not it could find people to buy them, according to people familiar with the matter. In order to keep the price people pay for the phone low and competitive with rivals, Sprint would be subsidizing the cost of each phone to the tune of about $500, which would take a long time to recoup even at the high monthly fees iPhone users pay.

Meanwhile, BGR reports that the iPhone 5 does in fact exist and that it will launch as a 4G WiMAX device as a Sprint exclusive -- at major blow to us AT&T users.

I have been told that Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 — yes the real iPhone 5, not the iPhone 4S — as an exclusive. And it will be a WiMAX device. AT&T and Verizon would launch the iPhone 4S and get the iPhone 5 sometime in the first quarter of next year as an LTE device. Globally, the iPhone 5 might be available as a 4G HSPA+ device.

With Sprint betting the future of the company on the iPhone, it is somewhat possible that it may have gone to extreme lengths to make a staggering entrance to the iPhone market. - sources: WSJ | BGR


Tags: iphone, iPhone 5, Spring