Rumour: Sprint spends big and secures iPhone 5 exclusivity
by Steven Mostyn - Oct 4 2011, 10:59
Is it a Sprint or a marathon? Image: Sprint.
With anticipation building for the arrival of Apple’s next generation iPhone handset, it would appear the mists of unconfirmed rumour are fast becoming a cloying fog that’s almost impossible to see through.
More pointedly, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is today reporting that U.S. mobile operator Sprint is in the process of girding its loins ahead of some extremely fruitful Apple-flavoured business.
According to the report, Sprint is to splash out somewhere in the vicinity of $20 billion USD in order to purchase approximately 30.5 million iPhones between now and 2015. Grand visions, indeed.
Upon being approached for an official response regarding the WSJ coverage, a spokeswoman for Sprint said the company doesn’t comment on “rumors and speculation”.
And, if you think that particular Sprint whisper is hard to swallow, try this one on for size, courtesy of the tech lovers at Boy Genius Report (BGR):
BGR’s Jonathan Geller has this week cited an unnamed insider in a report that claims Sprint will not only run the iPhone 5 on its 4G network, but will also be the smartphone’s exclusive carrier for the remainder of 2011. Wait, there’s more.
The report goes on to say that fellow U.S. carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless will offer a new tweaked iPhone 4S handset for the next few months and won’t receive the iPhone 5 until early 2012.
While we love a good dose of spurious rumour and unfounded speculation, all will be revealed when the iPhone 5 (iPhone 4S) gets its formal introduction on Tuesday during a Cupertino press event.
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