The iPhone business is now a three-player competition with the addition of the iPhone 4S on Tuesday, adding the nation's third-largest carrier to the vendor fray.
Sprint Nextel's slice of the pie reportedly comes at a hefty price, with the carrier committed to buying more than 30 million of the hit smartphones, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. That would likely make the 4S a money loser for the carrier until as late as 2014, when the company hopes to build up enough of a user base to start turning a profit.
It's a no-brainer for Apple, which needs more carrier coverage in its battle to catch up with Google's Android operating system. Devices running Android make up 52 percent of the U.S. market, according to research by NPD Group. But while the 29 percent share for Apple's iOS is much smaller, its is nonetheless impressive given that it is only on one device, as opposed to numerous Android handsets made by a range of manufacturers.
Opportunity Awaits
Sprint, at least for now, did not get an exclusive deal to carry the iPhone 5, when it is introduced, as some reports circulating Monday suggested.
Sprint Nextel, which has about 52 million subscribers, is looking solidly down the road with the iPhone deal, banking on AT&T, which holds the majority of iPhone service contracts, slowly losing share and hoping to successfully battle Verizon Wireless for strays and newcomers.
"AT&T's iPhone lead will shrink over time as more carriers start to offer the device," said wireless analyst Kirk Parsons of JD Power and Associates. "[For them] it's more about keeping existing customers and having them upgrade to the new offering rather than try to lure other customers away from the competition.
"Sprint currently offers unlimited data plans so that's still a competitive advantage."
Both AT&T and Verizon this year stopped offering new customers unlimited data plans, instead rolling out a range of capped plans. T-Mobile also has an unlimited plan but decreased speed for its heaviest users, making Sprint the last true unlimited plan among the major carriers.
In the first product launch since the resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO, his successor, Tim Cook, announced that the 4S will be available as of Oct. 14 on the three carriers, with the 16-gigabyte version selling for $199, the 32 GB for $299 and a 64 GB version -- a first for the media-friendly device -- for $399.
Faster Processor
Apple was widely believed to be unveiling a fully upgraded iPhone 5, but the release makes it the third version of last year's iPhone 4 after the CDMA version released by Sprint in February. The dual-core 4S is capable of working on both GSM and CDMA networks, another first, and it packs an A5 chip Apple says is up to twice as fast.
Apple will offer the 8 GB 3GS free via carriers with a two-year contract, a move intended to further drive adoption of the device for lower-income users and in emerging markets abroad, and will lower the price of the iPhone 4 8 GB model to $99.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111004/bs_nf/80458
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