“So The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint was so desperate to get the iPhone now that AT&T’s exclusivity deal is up, they actually bet the future of their company on it: they’ve placed an order for over $20 billion in iPhone sales over the next four years,” John Brownlee writes for Cult of Mac.
“Look, this is just stupid, and we think BGR’s out of their gourds to seriously posit this, ‘impeccable source’ or no,” Brownlee writes. “We seriously doubt that Apple is going to give the third-place wireless carrier their high-end, ultra-new and futuristic iPhone 5: that’s just madness.”
Brownlee writes, “Even if Sprint did demand an exclusive on the device, what possible negotiating position could they have to spur Apple to piss off their other carrier partners so badly. Third, as we keep on saying, there’s no supply chain evidence for the iPhone 5. None.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related article:
RUMOR: Sprint gets iPhone 5 exclusive in U.S.A. thanks to $20 billion deal – October 3, 2011
It is stupid.
On another point, there need not be supply chain evidence for a new iPhone 5 if it isn’t available this week. Look for a showcase and an “available when”.
T – 4:18
The only possibility I see would be for them to have an exclusive on the rumored “iPhone 4S”, not the iPhone 5.
Total freaking crap. The utter brainlessness of BGR’s postings have to be seen to be believed at times. Sprint getting iPhone 5 exclusivity will be like Ballmer growing a pair. Not going to happen.
One has to think the days of “exclusive” deals have come and gone. The new iOS devices have multi-carrier enabled radios and with each new carrier that gets added to Apple’s portfolio it just doesn’t make sense.
There just may be truth in this rumor. Just think what would happen to Apple’s stock price if it were true. It would tank, right? But hey, it already has. Down from $422 to $375. Why? Cause the guys who manipulate the market and who also have insider info know it’s true. But I hope to hell the rumor is false. I want 3 iPhone 5s please.
“Down from $422 to $375. Why?”
Cause when 70% of Apple’s shares are in the hands of institutions like the scamming hedge funds, it’s easy to manipulate a drop by systematic trickle selling and FUD mongering on slow volume days to create panic selling from the sheep. Artificially dropping the stock price by $50 is a perfect opportunity to then buy in bulk at fire sale prices and repeat the same exercise with a portion of the cheap stock when it’s risen to it’s highs again.
The high concentration of shares inthehands of relative few institutions is what enables this repeated manipulation- the trick is to pry the shares away from them and intotje hands of real investors that will hold value.
Apple is a cash cow for these manipulative bastiches. As long as the institutions can control the bulk of the shares the price will pogo-stick ad naseum to their advantage, and until Apple has achieved a price equilibrium as a mature stock. You can either hang on to the stock if you own it or try to play their short-selling options game. The SEC will never touch ’em.
“or try to play their short-selling options game.”
Don’t feed the animals.
If you step onto the field but don’t play the game, you can’t complain when you lose.
Not that I agree with what the institutions are doing, but the rules are obviously set up to favour them, not long-term individual investors like it may have been 100 or even 50 years ago.
I don’t know an Apple long that wouldn’t laugh you away.
There probably isn’t any way to pry Apple stock from institutions and get them into hands of individual investors. That’s the problem with Apple. Some people claim a split might be the solution, but Apple isn’t likely to split any time soon. Meanwhile, the hedge fund manipulators are having a field day with Apple stock. I think the recent drop in Apple’s share price is mainly due to general market malaise along with some manipulation. I’m seeing a lot of once healthy stocks taking pretty big hits, so Apple isn’t the only one. Apple doesn’t deserve it at all, since its already been lagging most of the year, but I don’t think Wall Street will allow to stand tall by itself.
I own all my Apple shares outright so a $50 drop wouldn’t make me dump any shares. It must be buyers that are buying on margin or something who would dump shares. Either that or the manipulators are deliberately taking shares of the table to make the stock look flaky. Well, the crooks are in control and as an individual investor I can only grab onto Apple’s tail for dear life and follow wherever it goes. That $422 to $375 drop has been a nasty ride. It keeps making me want to curse at Greece as a scapegoat.
Been that way for years, hang on to conviction, don’t yield to fear.
Good business would put the current customer base first, THEN find ways to expand outside their present circle of influence. The incumbent wants to get re-elected, and would love a larger margin than last time. First, he assures his base that they can still count on him, THEN he tries to reach out beyond his base to find ways to appeal to others.
Good post. Expand the existing user base in preference to recruiting a new, unproven user base. Unless of course the present user base is shrinking which doesn’t seem to be the case with VZW & AT&T.
On the other hand, ¿Why Apple haven´t strike a deal with foreign carriers as they did with AT&T? They are just simply throwing all down the drain. Its impossible to get a grasp on an iPhone outside the US. All iPhones are tied to the AT&T deal. There is no Apple store in my country, and the same goes for numerous regions in the world. Apple presence is no-existent here. The US got some 317 million people, Europe about 600 million, Latinamerica some 750 million and don´t forget Asia with more than 4.000 million. Apple´s got the Lion by the head but sometimes it appears they like to have it by the tail. While apple is focusing in the US market with its “lousy” 317 million, and is recently focusing the artillery on the China market, the rest of the world is absent. ¿Perhaps Apple is thinking is best for their interest not to win those extra US$ 80 billions and leave it for a better time, right? ¿Why a company like Apple prefer to wait instead upping its production to fill the needs of the remaining global costumers?
All good points Alberto. Nobody knows why Apple is focusing on a zit like Sprint to confer iPhone exclusivity on while ignoring the other 6 billion potential users in the rest of the world. Seems like a lot of work for minuscule returns.
¿How come? 500 bucks a piece multiplied by millions don´t seem “minuscule returns” to me. A cell Phone, even a expensive one as Apple´s, while is certainly a no-first priority item for most societies in most countries, it is certainly an appealing one that most can afford, even in poor countries. A cell phone is a desirably gadget in our society, and people go in to great lengths to get one. ¿Why Apple haven´t fill the void? I´m a Graphic Designer from Colombia, and all my professional life I´ve been buying Apple computers, although there have never been an Apple store in my country. I´ve purchased all my Macs thru third party stores during all these years. Off course, the price unit of those Macs were always higher than those you get in US stores. Still I went into great lengths to always get the latest Apple unit that my money could afford. And today an iPhone cost 1/3 of what I got to pay for my iMacs. Imagine how much the rest of the client base could buy with 1/3 of their money, even if they are not Apple cult followers like me? …thats right, tons of iPhones. But no. After 20 years, Apple still can´t figured out the foreign market even if that market is a pristine unpolluted paradise that no other company is exploiting.
No, I agree with you 100% Alberto. Everything you say makes sense. Apple should widen its focus to the rest of the world and in particular to South America where its absence is sorely felt. They should open more stores there and everywhere else outside North America to capture pent up demand for Apple products, not only the iPhone but Macs, iPads and all the rest of it. If I were in charge of Apple retail I’ll certainly make sure that Apple covers South America more fully than it does now. Not to do so is, in my opinion, stupid.
Welcome to the Apple fold my friend.
Thanks man.
Yeah, I always wonder why Apple did not opened more stores down here. I studied in Minneapolis, MN, long time ago. At school I got to work with the first generation Macs, Mac Plus and Mac LC’s. Still, using them back then was like driving a space aircraft that landed in your backyard… Freehand 2.5, Photoshop 2, Page Maker 1.5… it was ridiculous if you review it today. But it was the future then. Ever since I went back home, when I bought my first Mac, an LC II, and later a Quadra 610 (the best Mac I ever had and love the much).. I noticed the void in the market Apple left untouched. There was no apple products nowhere no be seen here when the market demanded its introduction. Windoze 3.1 was the norm, a crappy GUI which took the country (and the rest of the world) by a storm. Apple followers like me were scratching our heads wondering why Apple didn’t open a store in our region, or at least give a franchise to some third party vendor so their products could show up on the shelves. Total negation and omission. Still, there was a huge market, specially from designers, architects and people who wanted the pleasure and the experience to ride a state of the art appliance.
Today, 20 years later, in October 2011, in my country… you still could not find an Apple store or a corporate representation of Apple products in the entire nation. Just independent third party stores selling Apple products on their own, under their own commercial risk, and at higher prices than Apple stores in the US. The same situation goes for Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Perú, etc. The list goes on and on.
People in Northamerica are ignorant for the most part about these facts. The common believe is that this is a chitty place, full of drug dealers, infested mosquito jungles (although Minnesota beats in that department any other region in the world), little dusty towns with chicken roaming here and there, and ignorant uneducated peasants all over the place (the typical Hollywood movie scene). Wrong image.
If you have the opportunity to travel down here you will get the surprise of your life. Huge metropolitan areas, vast cities of 8, 9 or 10 million citizens each. Corporations and business booming everywhere, full urban construction cities with skycrapers reaching the horizon, educated societies and the best of all… hundreds of professional areas of knowledge and millions of executives, entrepreneurs, home users and students that are eager to get a grasp on the ultimate gadget that comes out of Apple drawing boards. They got the money to spend on and work in the fields of expertise to use them. ¿Why Apple haven´t fill this necessity already? The company is throwing the money out the window.
Oh! by the way, Ballmer´s got no more nuts to loose.
I posted this earlier… What is possible, is that sprint will get the only 4G iPhone5 (for a few quarters)
Sprint currently uses wimax, not LTE, it may have been possible to make a wimax iPhone now (efficient LTE chips are still a couple quarters off) but apple required a multi year contract (from sprint) to make them a “special” wimax phone.
Assuming this is so, the GSM phone (Europe & AT&T) will likely do HSPA+ (3G+ will do 25mbps, this is service that t-mobile is calling 4G, though it really isn’t) which isn’t bad (is in fact faster than most of the 4G that is currently available)
The only real losers in this scheme will be Verizon users who will get (at least for a couple more quarters) basically the same capabilities they had in the iPhone 4 in a new package. But it’s ok, Verizon users are used to (even seem to enjoy) suffering.
I was wondering if Sprint brought a short window of exclusivity of a couple of months along with that contract. It gets the first batch of iPhone 5s and that’s it. Just enough of an exclusivity window to get a nice run of customers over to Sprint before the other carriers jump in.
If Sprint committed to buy $20B of iPhones in order to get Apple to build a Wimax version then that would be tantamount to exclusivity until Apple can get an LTE version to market.