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Rumor: iPhone 5 to Be Exclusive to Sprint

- By - Source : Boy Genius Report

With less than a day to go until Apple unveils the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S, there's one last wild iPhone 5 rumor that's causing a ruckus across the blogosphere.

Possibly sad news for all non-Sprint customers

This past weekend, the iPhone 5 was spotted in Radio Shack's inventory system. Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint would be betting everything on the newest iPhone. The Journal's post said that the deal with Apple included a requirement that Sprint buy a minimum of 30.5 million iPhones through 2015. That's a financial commitment of more than 20 billion dollars, an amount equal to more than 2/3 of their total revenue in 2010.

That sounds like a crazy (and risky) deal, especially when you consider the fact that Sprint supposedly won't even break even until 2014. However, it seems there could be more in it for Sprint than we initially thought. Boy Genius Report's Jonathon S. Geller is citing a 'solid source' in reporting that Apple's hefty price tag has bought exclusivity for Sprint, at least for the time being. Geller describes his industry source as "incredibly solid" and says he's been going back and forth with this person over the last few weeks discussing this "unbelievable" information.

Here's the low down: Geller's source says that Sprint's multi-billion dollar deal has bought the company an exclusive deal on the iPhone 5 that will see AT&T and Verizon get the iPhone 4S this year but no iPhone 5 until first quarter of 2012. Sprint, on the other hand, will be selling a 4G WiMAX iPhone 5 from day one.

This one sounds a little far fetched, but then again, $20 billion is a lot of money, even to Apple. I guess we'll find out one way or another tomorrow morning! Tune in at 9 a.m. PT or 1 p.m. ET for the big announcement.

Check out other crazy iPhone 5 rumors here.

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Randomacts 10/04/2011 6:14 AM
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-13+

LOL this would make me soo happy.... not because I use sprint, but because all the apple fan boys would be like "OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" but still would pay for the early

COLGeek 10/04/2011 6:35 AM
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I guess Apple really doesn't want to sell too many of these. Right?

Sorry, I just had to get a dig in on Sprint. Not my favorite company due to past issues with them.

Regardless, let the making of "Apple sauce" begin (for all of the haters out there....)!

oxxfatelostxxo 10/04/2011 6:39 AM
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I own a iphone, and a pc. Im happy with both. Maybe you need to hop off your high horse and look at a product for what it is and not just the company that made it.

I got the iphone because performance wise at the time it was pretty much dead equal with android, yet coming from a flip phone still had a semi compact normal-ness i was used too.
Only regret about the iphone is lack of java and flash, but thankfully remote desktop apps some what solved that annoyance.

onyx_64 10/04/2011 7:43 AM
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in which country did 9 a.m. PT become 1 p.m. ET??

JOSHSKORN 10/04/2011 8:18 AM
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enforcer22 10/04/2011 9:26 AM
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Anonymous 10/04/2011 9:51 AM
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If it is Sprint only, how come the top line of the inventory screenshot in http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone [...] 12728.html shows an AT&T iPhone 5 and the line just above the Sprint one shows VZ (presumably Verizon)? Either there is only the Sprint phone, at which point the inventory could be just speculation by Radio Shack, or we trust the inventory and Sprint doesn't have an exclusive deal.

bhaberle 10/04/2011 1:30 PM
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Interesting. I wonder how shareholders would react to this? Anyways I don't know how I feel about this. =P but if Sprint does have it, the fact that its CDMA will keep people from jumping to AT&T and T-Mobile.

del35 10/04/2011 1:30 PM
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I just got the Samsung Galaxy S2 and love its flexibility, battery replaceability, connectivity, ergonomics, blazing speed, and design; In all honesty, I can't imagine owning an Apple iJailyou phone.

dcompart 10/04/2011 1:50 PM
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Cydia and Installous removes restrictions, it might not be stock, but it's easy to jailbreak. The SG S2 is beautiful, but Marketplace does not have the higher numbers of heavy load Apps that have great graphics and gameplay. Sometimes its not about hardware but the apps that take advantage of the hardware.

If Apple fails to deliver this time around though I will be moving to Android as a person can't wait forever.

tgreader 10/04/2011 2:21 PM
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Only Apple chooses exclusivity as opposed to mass availability as to increase the aura of their gadgets. The notion that carriers have to subsidize the god phone in order to be privileged and blessed by it amounts to hype, marketing and gullible consumers.

nebun 10/04/2011 2:21 PM
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Apple Troll Master 10/04/2011 4:08 PM
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Apple makes the Fisher-Price of computers and phones. Durable, Few colors, and can only be used one way.

Good Luck with your investment =)

pkoenig 10/04/2011 4:32 PM
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Suspens !

danbfree 10/04/2011 6:50 PM
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Did you guys see the part where it says " that will see AT&T and Verizon get the iPhone 4S this year but no iPhone 5 until first quarter of 2012"?

That means sprint just gets it exclusively for the holiday shopping period, that's it... As a former Sprint employee I can tell you that they will often do that, remember the Palm Pre? And I think the iPhone5 will be *slightly* more poplular... /s

eddieroolz 10/05/2011 2:12 AM
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It just doesn't make sense why Apple would make it an exclusive, because they'll sell more when it is not.

tanjo 10/05/2011 3:47 AM
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Apple's dumping all their shit on Sprint. Pity. Apple's thinking they won't be selling the iPhony 5 very well so they bulk sell???? Poor Sprint...

killerb255 10/05/2011 5:45 PM
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9 AM PT is actually 12 PM Eastern. In the US from West to East:

Pacific -> Mountain (Pacific +1 hour) -> Central (Pacific +2 hours) -> Eastern (Pacific +3 hours).

Therefore 9 AM PT -> 10 AM MT -> 11 AM CT -> 12 PM ET.

viper1152005 10/05/2011 6:49 PM
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"I own a iphone, and a pc. Im happy with both. Maybe you need to hop off your high horse and look at a product for what it is and not just the company that made it.

I got the iphone because performance wise at the time it was pretty much dead equal with android, yet coming from a flip phone still had a semi compact normal-ness i was used too.
Only regret about the iphone is lack of java and flash, but thankfully remote desktop apps some what solved that annoyance.
onyx_64 10/04/2011 7:43 AM"

OMG, that's funny, firstly this is not a thread for comparing a iphone and pc evaluations, just iphone speculation, secondly if your buying an android phone and plan to root it and OC like i did with my Mytouch 4g 1.9GHZ baby, then you know there has never been an android phone that wasn't capable of outpacing a iphone when used for its "true potential"
also....you smell *.*

thirdly, i just wanted to say thirdly its a funny lead in.

but foremost for the thread, WHAT ABOUT the AT&T customers bleeding from their eyes for the iphone 5, isn't this gonna shy some of them away having to change carriers and possibly void contracts to get a new service plan?

i honestly dont know because i dont use AT&T or an iphone. someone enlighten me.

sent from my My Touch 4G