It was quick, and if you blinked, you may have missed it, but Apple announced yesterday that the iPhone is finally coming to Sprint. You wouldn’t know that, though, if you took a look at Sprint’s website. Curiously, Sprint.com still bares no mention of the iPhone.
A day before Apple’s iPhone media event, a report surfaced claiming that Sprint was betting the farm on the iPhone to the extent that it pledged to purchase over 30 billion iPhones from Apple, regardless of whether or not it has enough interested customers to meet that supply.
What’s more, and in an effort to hopefully steal away subscribers from AT&T and Verizon, Sprint today confirmed that they will maintain their unlimited data plans for iPhone users. You might remember that AT&T and Verizon have long since discarded their unlimited data plans in favor of tiered plans.
“We will be offering the benefit of our unlimited plans that start at just $69.99,” said spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein. Sprint’s $69.99 plan includes unlimited data and 450 voice minutes as well as unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Unlimited calling and data costs $99 a month.
It’s certainly an attractive proposition, even though the majority of iPhone users don’t run up against their bandwidth limit on a monthly basis. And at this point, with Sprint CEO Dan Hesse acknowledging that most subscribers leave Sprint because of the iPhone, the Kansas-based carrier will have to pull out all the stops if it ever wants to catch up to AT&T in a tangible way. During its most recent fiscal quarter, Sprint reported losses of $847 million and the iPhone may very well be the company’s last hope to return to profitability.
And as for Sprint’s quizzical silence regarding the iPhone 4S, Ina Fried writes that the company is “just making sure all of its proverbial ducks are in a row before shifting into iPhone overdrive.”
via All Things D
Wed, Oct 5, 2011
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