“As Sprint’s struggles continue, some see an even steeper fall ahead,” Scott Moritz reports for TheStreet.com.
“But the Reston, Va., phone company’s next wound may not even be self-inflicted. Industry watchers and investors say the next looming threat to Sprint comes from the hotly anticipated iPhone from Apple. If the iPod-inspired phone has anything near the success that some observers expect, AT&T’s exclusive arrangement to sell the phone will ring up big subscriber wins. The way some observers see it, many of those new AT&T customers will likely be coming from Sprint,” Moritz reports.
“Sprint is the most vulnerable because it has one of the biggest groups of heavy data users, notes one investor who has no position,” Moritz reports. “Sprint isn’t alone, of course. Verizon Wireless — co-owned by Verizon and Vodafone — also has its share of trendsetters who may covet the phone of the moment. ‘This is going to cut into all the others’ net adds,’ says the money manager, who is long Verizon.”
“Some observers, however, say Sprint has a fighting chance against the iPhone with its Samsung UpStage device, which has a music player and large screen on one side and a phone on the other,” Moritz reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Some observers would be so blind, deaf, and stupid that they can’t even understand recent history or why products succeed while others fail (see: iPod vs. every other digital player). It’s not feature lists, dummies. And it’s certainly not two-faced, fugly Samsung kludges designed to divert attention from the company’s (and the entire industry’s) miserable failure to innovate.
Full article here.
