Sprint Risking More Than 20 Billion on iPhone 5 Deal

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house70

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Nope, it will force Sprint to do without unlimited data plans, just like the others have done in the past. Everyone started claiming the phone will be better on their network, only to realize that their network was not able to keep up with the technology (be it Android or Apple). Thing is, history repeats itself, it's only news for people who do not learn from it.
Another thing is, nowadays everyone is pushing for more bandwidth usage, via cloud features and what not. At the same time, bandwidth providers are tightening the screws on their services, charging more for (more) limited bandwidth. It's like they're ignoring the trend, and that's why one can find awesome deals in other countries that offer true competition in this field.
Until the telcom monopolies are broken, the customer will continue to get the bad deals here.
 
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Of Course Sprint will make bank with this deal! Why Not? The iPhone is the hottest phone the planet. I personally love Sprint their coverage is great and reliable. Who the heck needs to go the middle of the desert and make a phone call anyways?? Get real. Sprint isnt dumb they know there gonna benefit some way or another.
 

lpedraja2002

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I believe that for Sprint to succeed they will have to offer great unlimited packages, given that their coverage isn't great (according to the article). Bandwidth is where its at, if they can mange to still keep their supposedly "unlimited" data packages or maybe make a special offer for Iphone 5 users then maybe they'll get a nice chunk of people to their side.
 

Ragnar-Kon

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[citation][nom]Mrad[/nom]Who the heck needs to go the middle of the desert and make a phone call anyways??[/citation]
People in live in Arizona, like myself.

If Sprint can hold on to the Unliimited data plan, as well as the iPhone, and the iPhone continues to sell well. Sprint could make a HUGE profit. If one of those three things fail, then could could potentially lose a ton of money.

Having said that it isn't enough for me to switch back to Sprint (iPhone & Unlimited data or not). I used to have Sprint, but got tired of losing service the moment I walked under a tree.
 

alidan

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so... apple is forceing them to buy 30 million phones over a 2-3 year period and only the iphone 5?

so... instead of getting newer phones they have to keep buying up older ones...

this sounds retarded, am i missing something, is this common?
i mean i realize businesses order stock, but do the people who provide stock tell people you have to buy this INSANE AMOUNT or no dice?
and i realise that companies commonly sell pallets, but not unnecessary millions.
 

beayn

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This sounds like what MS used to do. "You can't sell Windows unless you sell Windows on all your computers.", "You can't sell the iphone unless you make ALL your sales iphone sales."
 

bin1127

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People are leaving sprint because they don't have the iphone, but why should a company try to retain them by losing huge amounts of money? I hope sprint realize that people don't just buy iphones. You can make money by selling other phones without sticking your neck out under a falling guillotine.
 
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Forced to buy a phone, which in all reality, is most likely not worth the insane price at all. I do not know the iPhone 5 specs, but I would bet that the Bionic blows it out of the water at a cheaper price. Plus the Verizon coverage trumps all other carriers w/ actual 4g LTE speed.
 

Ragnar-Kon

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[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]so... apple is forceing them to buy 30 million phones over a 2-3 year period and only the iphone 5? so... instead of getting newer phones they have to keep buying up older ones...this sounds retarded, am i missing something, is this common? i mean i realize businesses order stock, but do the people who provide stock tell people you have to buy this INSANE AMOUNT or no dice? and i realise that companies commonly sell pallets, but not unnecessary millions.[/citation]
No one force anyone to do anything. Apple said "here is our contract." Then the Sprint's board of directors said "okay, we agree."

No one forced Sprint to buy anything, they bought it on their own free will. Did Apple rip off Sprint? Probably, but it was still Sprint's choice to be ripped off.
 

dalethepcman

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I'm thinking sprints board members own more $'s in Apple / AT&T / Verizon stock than sprint stock.

Lets shrink this to make it easier to understand. For actual figures replace k with b.

My name is Sprint, I make 32k a year, at the end of the year I have about 1k of free cash flow, and I have 5k in my bank. I'm going to bet 20k over the next 3 years that the iPhone will keep my salary at 32k.

If I only make 1k / year more than I spend, and I spend every penny I have, where I am getting the other 12k from?

Sprint is betting the iPhone will increase their profits year over year by 2 billion dollars. 2b in 2013, 4b in 2014, 6b in 2015.

Someone has some really fuzzy math to think this is possible...
 

beayn

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[citation][nom]Ragnar-Kon[/nom]No one force anyone to do anything. Apple said "here is our contract." Then the Sprint's board of directors said "okay, we agree."No one forced Sprint to buy anything, they bought it on their own free will. Did Apple rip off Sprint? Probably, but it was still Sprint's choice to be ripped off.[/citation]

You're justifying monopolistic actions. You'd probably bash MS for handing out the same contracts with selling Windows back in the day like I mentioned in my previous comment. Microsoft didn't "force" anyone to accept the contract, right? The fact of the matter is, when you have such a popular item that companies have to sell, unreasonable contracts are indeed "forcing".
 

Shin-san

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I hope this means that there will be affordable no-contract phones because Sprint owns a lot of no-contract cell phone providers
 

ben850

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[citation][nom]abel2[/nom]I do not know the iPhone 5 specs, but I would bet that the Bionic blows it out of the water at a cheaper price. Plus the Verizon coverage trumps all other carriers w/ actual 4g LTE speed.[/citation]

Specs only matter to a certain degree. The more important thing is about how they're applied.

Comparing the specs of two different Android phones is one thing, but comparing specs of an Android device to an iOS device is retarded without real-world testing.

This is like comparing two different vehicles. One might have the bigger engine, the closer gear ratios, the better "specs" but that doesn't mean it can put that power down to the wheels effectively, or turn corners very well.
 

blackened144

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[citation][nom]abel2[/nom]Forced to buy a phone, which in all reality, is most likely not worth the insane price at all. I do not know the iPhone 5 specs, but I would bet that the Bionic blows it out of the water at a cheaper price. Plus the Verizon coverage trumps all other carriers w/ actual 4g LTE speed.[/citation]
Sorry.. They have the same basic Cortex-A9 based dual core CPU, but the A5 SOC that Apple uses has the SGX543 whereas the Bionic has the SGX540... Thus its the Apple that would blow the Bionic out of the water.. In benchmarking the GPU in the iPad2 it has been shown to blow just about everything out of the water.. It wont be until Tegra3 products come out that something might compete with the GPU in the iPhone5.. But like Ben850 said, its still up to the OS to drive the hardware to its optimal levels..
 

jgutz2006

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"sprints relatively poor coverage".....Been a Sprint customer for the last 5 years or so, I just hope this doesn't force Sprint to cap their unlimited plans like the others have. I love the Evo, and now Evo3d which is why i am where i am aside from the unlimited data. Cap me and i'll find another HTC Android phone with whoever has the best deals at the time.
 
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