Sprint iPhone could launch before Christmas, analyst says

By on Jul 6, 2011 at 12:00 PM
mobile July 6, 2011

On Wednesday, Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin said that an iPhone launch on Sprint is ever more likely since Verizon Wireless’ announcement that it will move from unlimited data plans to tiered data pricing on July 7th. According to Barron’s, Yin believes that Apple will be more compelled than ever to launch a device on Sprint, given that it’s the last remaining of the big four U.S. wireless carriers to offer a truly unlimited data option. “We believe Sprint could capture more than its fair share of iPhone sales, especially if it gets the new model at the same time as AT&T and Verizon.” Yin explained. “We see little reason for Apple to hold back,” he argued, noting that Sprint most likely would attempt to launch the device before the holiday season this year. “[Sprint] could offer an attractive proposition for more price-conscious users (a demographic we think is increasingly important to Apple following the rise of Android,” he said. “[It] could be a relatively stronger seller than the Verizon iPhone.”

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  • Ross

    Sprint is not going to stay unlimited that much longer.  People keep squawking SPRINT!  SPRINT! in response to VZW going tiered but Dan Hesse made it clear that they’ll stay unlimited “as long as they can.”  which is companyspeak for “we’re definitely going to do away with it.”

    • http://twitter.com/jimmiekain Jimmie

      I do an awful lot of youtube watching, web surfing, picture / video sending and video chat… I have never gone over 2gb even with 4g on my HTC EVO. Sure, I would like for sprint to stay unlimited but if they dont, it will have very little effect on me. 

      • Anonymous

        You can’t possibly do that much and not go over 2GBs… I’m over 2 every month doing the same you do… I randomly may hit 3GB

      • Anonymous

        It depends on how often you’re on WiFi, no?

      • http://twitter.com/theburack theburack

        me too, i was shocked when checking my usage i average about 1.8GB or so.  The real advantage is so many people on Sprint use corporate discounts (and some still have SERO) that makes it so cheap they wont leave.  My 27% discount makes the cost of a family unlimited data plan the same as one line on Verizon.  

      • Ross

        I happen to agree with you.  I think moving away from unlimited is much ado about nothing.  Most people will not be affected by it.  And by “most” I mean “The vast, vast majority of smartphone users.”

      • Anonymous

        You’ve used a lot more than that, its just that Sprint is not allowed to show 4G data usage. So the usage you see on sprint is only 3G

      • http://www.okaygeek.com/darryl maxrobes2000

        I hover around the same amount. However, I try to use wifi whenever possible. I don’t do as much video chat but when I do, it’s definitely on WIFI.

      • tazman69

        I average about 4.5 GB each month on my EVO so tiered data would impact me.  And I never use 4G even though it’s available in my city as the coverage is swiss cheese plus it kills the battery which is bad enough already.  If Sprint does go the tiered data route I will go to at&t.  Where I live at&t has much better coverage and data speeds.  Sprints data speeds are almost useless at times so I’m about to jump anyway.

      • Danta Moore

        I do all that as well and i share 2gb with 2 other people. difference is i do alot over wi-fi. and i dont do anything heavy such as app updates, and big attachments over the air

    • wanghanglo

      lets just change the name of the site to iBGR….i dont know y i come to this site anymore, more habit than anything i guess.  i want news not speculation, and i dont mind iphone news.  im not a big apple fan but im curious to see the new design of the iphone, but enough with these analyst guesses

      • Kchristainsen

        +1…. everything is spectulation. I don’t mind a rumor or 2 but lets get more news then speculation

      • Anonymous

        You don’t pay much attention to the markets then? A sprint iPhone would improve the market place as well as Apple and sprints value.

        Becuase anaylitics and hypothesis are easy to over look the NEWS is, Apple is now in a postion that it has never been in (at least after the intial iPhone deal with cingular), it can let its iPhone be on all networks and work with ALL THE THINGS (well maybe not all of them)…..which means more options!
        to me its kind of logical or obvious that this was coming, which makes it non news. Not the fact that a stock broker put his say in the mix.

      • antnee

        I tired of reading about people complaining about “analyst guesses” on thing I like to read about….just stop coming to the site!JACKASS!!!

        “you sound like a littel school boy bitch”

        To quote one of my favorite movies Anchorman…Brian Fantana…lol

    • Sin City

      Sprint won’t go towards Tiered Data until LTE is an option a couple months from launch.  They are campaigning hard that they are the only unlimited data carrier.

      Unless Sprint version ends up being physically different from AT&T/Verizon, which it won’t, I see zero reason why it would release months after those two. 

    • worldbfree4me

      Android for Life!

      Sprint has already begun the REVO-lution against Apple with the latest entrant, 3D Glasses Free EVO-lution! iOS is purely a business decision and a good one at that, but they are beholden to Google now!

      “Never have so few, Owed so much, to So many”

      • Anonymous

        So the gimmicky 3D is saving the world?

      • worldbfree4me

        No, not the World, more like liberating us from Walled in Gardens all over the World 

        sent from my HTC EVO 4G ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    • Anonymous

      You’re just mad that your carrier doesn’t offer it. The reason they are going to stay unlimited is because that is one of the biggest advantages they have over all the other carriers and after their Network Vision upgrade they are gonna be saving well over $1 billion per year so look for them to have unlimited data for many years to come

      • Ross

        Why would I be mad that my carrier doesn’t offer it?  I’m grandfathered in right now.  I bet I’ll lose that around the same time Sprint ditches unlimited. 

      • Anonymous

        If thinking that helps you sleep at night then do what you gotta do bro. All I know is that I don’t need to be grandfathered because my carrier still has the option

  • Anonymous

    Sprint iPhone 5 sounds good to me.

    • Anonymous

      If they can squeeze a wimax radio in it, it will be the first “4G” iphone.

      • antnee

        Thumbs up!!!

  • Kregstrong

    You all should rename this site to iphonerumors..com. Seriously can’t u keep from posting every rumor on the internet??

    • Prof. Peabody

      This comment just shows what a ridiculous, clueless person you are.  If Sprint has a cheap iPhone 4 (as well as a cool fifth gen one), for Christmas, it will have a huge effect on the market as a whole.  This site is about mobile gadgets and the market for same.  Ignoring something that has such a huge effect would be stupid.  It’s not just “today’s rumour,” it’s actually notice of a fairly large shift in the industry..  

    • Anonymous

      This is obvious, as CDMA bands are shared by Verizon and Sprint…It just makes sense as the only thing holding a Verizon iPhone from working on Sprint is their internal provisioning systems locking the ESN out of their networks for new subscribers. My Nexus S4G is through Sprint and I use a home baked PRL to use a few Verizon towers near my work.

      Apple would not have to make a new phone just for Sprint, just get clearance to sell it.  

  • http://twitter.com/theburack theburack

    If Pre3 doesnt happen I’m going iphone.  Not sure why Apple wouldn’t do this anyway, 50M user base?

  • http://twitter.com/jimmiekain Jimmie

    I have no interest in an iPhone. All I wanna know is when is the Samsung Galaxy S II coming to sprint?

    • Anonymous

      Then why are you commenting on an iphone article?

    • christian

      thank you! if they get this before the gs2 i’m gonna be so pissed!
      @lurker22: quit trying to start a fight,he made a comment about the article and asked what i–and i’m sure many others–thought was an obvious follow-up question.

  • http://twitter.com/theburack theburack

    correct but it’s not happening yet, and it would be a good push for a lot of users to lock in 2 yr contracts before unlimited ends.

  • GeniusboyReporter

    I don’t think sprint can afford the iPhone with it’s lack of credit requirements. The subsidy paired with their churn makes for a finical loss. Sprint doesnt have the type of customers apple is looking for.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

      It won’t matter to Apple.  They won’t lose anything.  The carrier doesn’t get anything on iPhone sales.  Sprint would have to suffer any losses like AT&T and Verizon would.  But here’s the thing, Sprint doesn’t have the extra ETF fee that VZW and AT&T charge.  So I could easily see them making the ETF fee for iPhone devices 350 instead of the normal 200 like all the other phones.

    • Devon2000

      And what kind of customers are apple are looking for? And whats the difference between the customers on sprint and the customers on every other carrier? Can you elaborate? And from my understanding Apple just have to worry about selling the phone, after the phone is sold its up to the carrier to deal with the customer, so what you are saying makes no sense to me.

    • Anonymous

      Have you actually looked at their churn or are you just parroting a popular internet meme? For the record, their churn was at 1.81% for Q1 2011. That’s pretty decent. Not at&t or Verizon Wireless good, mind you, but pretty damn good. Especially when you take into consideration the ridiculous amount of Nextel iDEN users bolting for the exit each and every quarter.

  • http://twitter.com/worldbfree4me worldbfree4me

    Mom or the Wife may want one, but im going to keep rockin’ my EVO for the forseeable future.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

    I’d go back to Sprint immediately because of the cheaper plans. 

    But I’m sure they will eventually go tiered as well.

  • Cer

    Sprint getting an iPhone = 6-8 months before they go to a tiered plan.

  • Anonymous

    I think this picture sums up BGR recently

  • Anonymous

    I think this picture sums up BGR recently

  • http://www.geekfori.com Matthew

    Sprint is still a wireless carrier? Hmmm didn’t know that!

  • atl404west

    yawn…

    • Anonymous

      IM waiting on that Nexus 3 Prime. OMAP processor with a kickass screen. iPhone is no longer the hottest chick at the dance.

      • Anonymous

        The iPhone 5 hasn’t even come out yet. And how do you know how well that processor will work in the real world? You can’t make judgements based on specs. It’s like looking at a car’s window sticker and making a decision.

  • Anonymous

    iPhone f-ing up networks all over the world

    • serpentor

      yup. There’s no gain for a Sprint. Just a lot of hurt.

      People aren’t going to be switching to them just to use iPhone on their network. And Sprint doesn’t really want people switching over just to use up crazy amounts of data on an unlimited plan.

      And you know Sprint sales reps don’t want it.  They might sell a ton of them, but commissions on iPhones are shit.

      • Prof. Peabody

        It’s so sad that you think you’re comments are actually meaningful and smart.  

        “No gain” for Sprint in getting the worlds most popular smartphone on their network?  What a ridiculous thing to say.  It just shows how biased you are.  In fact, every comment you make on BGR shows how biased you are.  

      • Anonymous

        +1… What a fucking jackass

      • serpentor

        Let’s meet again after the first full quarter Sprint has the iPhone and we’ll see how many subs they’ve added or if they added anything of significance to their bottom line.

        If there’s nothing there than my comments are officially meaningful and smart.

        And thanks for reading all my comments.

      • serpentor

        Also, seeing as you don’t agree, what gain do you think Sprint would actually get from selling iPhone?

        Yeah, it’s great to say you have the most popular smartphone available, but so does every other network by that point. What’s the advantage there? Even 5 years after not having the iPhone they’re adding a decent number of subs compared to AT&T who’s only focus is on iPhone.

        Maybe some people will switch over because Sprint has a cheaper plan, but like AT&T and Verizon, that won’t be true soon after they sell iPhone.

      • Anonymous

        Sprint might not make huge gains by having the iPhone, but do you think they want to be the only one left out of the party? 

        As a consumer, I think you’d want the most popular smartphone (which sets the tone for data pricing) on all networks, since it will increase competition. If all carriers have the iPhone, then they have to compete on service and price. Win, for consumers.

      • Anonymous

        Thank god you don’t run a company. Stick to mommy’s basement, or maybe take a business class.

  • serpentor

    Isn’t it just WiMax that’s truly unlimited? Thought I saw that somewhere.

    • UndeadNexus

      No They have Unlimited 3G too.

      • Anonymous

        They recently made an update to their services, where everyone has to pay an additional 10 bucks a month for unlimited 3g or 4g data. This was initially for 4g customers only- so it is indeed truely unlimed on 3 or 4g

  • Anonymous

    Even if I were willing to subject myself [AGAIN] to Sprint’s excruciatingly horrendous Customer dis-Service, why would I choose a tAmpon when Sprint has the EVO 3D; a REAL phone with a REAL camera and 4G Data network connectivity???

    For real.™®©•π

  • Anonymous

    Hey, I’m an analyst and I’ve researched The Boy Genius report very thoroughly. I have come to the conclusion that they are shit. Since you like to use literally any analyst on the internet, I am expecting a story about how much BGR sucks ass. 

  • Anonymous

    Enough with the f***ing analysts.

  • http://profiles.google.com/the1aboveall James Padilla

    Honestly, lately this is the only reason I have visited BGR.  To actually, hopefully hear about Sprint’s iPhone. Alas, it comes in the form of another analyst.  BGR you were always on top with breaking news and photos that no one else could pull off.  Now you’ve become a second rate Gizmodo…Getting second hand news and relying more on Analytical speculation.  This simply sucks ass… 

  • Anonymous

    I would look into an iPhone on the Sprint network but No keyboard = No sale
    *hugs Epic*

  • Anonymous

    Don’t bring that icrap to the Now Network.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y7R2Q22GSPY7SE3WMIR5QBXJWE Roseann Chase

    I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, LiveCent.com

  • Anonymous

    I think the Iphone will make Sprint better and bring more customers to Sprint.

    I have HTC EVO4G, not a Iphone fanboy…

    • Bill Loney

      do yourself a big favor and upgrade to the E3D

  • Glenn Urrea

    Guess I know what my baby’s mama is getting for Christmas. I’ll stick with my Sexy Nexy. 

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