Sprint reportedly buying 30.5 million iPhones from Apple
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The Sprint iPhone has been rumored for months, but Monday saw the break of two new reports that trump all others thus far in terms of jaw-dropping effect.
First up, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint has agreed to pay about $20 billion to buy at least 30.5 million iPhones from Apple over the next four years.
In the terms of the agreement, as reported by the Journal, Sprint wouldn’t be expected to make money selling the iPhone until 2014.
Sprint spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy said, ‘We don’t comment on rumors and speculation,’ when asked about the Journal report.
But if you think that sounds a bit far-fetched, try out the rumor published by the website BoyGeniusReport.
Jonathan S. Geller of BoyGeniusReport reported that an unnamed source gave him ‘information that is so unbelievable, even from a source this solid, that I couldn’t report it. With this new WSJ report on an Apple/Sprint deal, however, it doesn’t look so crazy.’
Geller said he was told that the iPhone 5 is set to be a Sprint exclusive in 2011 and that it would run on the carrier’s 4G WiMax network. Verizon and AT&T would land the iPhone 4S (basically the current iPhone with upgraded internal hardware) and get a proper iPhone 5 early next year running on each respective carrier’s 4G LTE networks, according to the story.
Gizmodo described the BoyGeniusReport article as ‘unbelievably wild,’ but wild-sounding rumors in the last few years have become a part of the hype machine that builds before Apple product releases.
Of course, we’ll all know whether or not Sprint will carry Apple’s next iPhone, be it called iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, after tomorrow’s press event at the tech giant’s Cupertino headquarters.
But what do you think of the reports from the Journal and BoyGeniusReport? Could you believe either one of them, or does it all sound too good to be true? Sound off in the comments.
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles