With the clock ticking October 4, the rate and absurdness of rumors about the upcoming iPhone(s) are getting out of control. The latest being triggered by WSJ’s piece about Sprint getting exclusive rights to a new iPhone with a guarantee of business worth $20 billion to Apple. BGR jumps upon the news and makes a super claim about the Sprint rumor and the whole thing before we even describe is clearly a misguided crazy rumor.
Sprint in US is behind AT&T, Verizon and not very ahead of T-mobile in terms of consumer base. In fact Sprint is a fraction of the scale of market leader Verizon. While the splurge of $20 billion to get exclusive rights to iPhone might sound like a big deal, the rumor spoils it with a ‘up to 2014’ quote in there. Why would Apple leave the top carriers and bet on the smallest of the lot for its premium product? Specially when it can easily sell to all carriers.
BGR claims that the iPhone 5 launch would be a 4G WiMAX device for Sprint (exclusive) with a 4G HSPA+ avatar globally. We find it hard to accept that Apple would treat the global market over its local partners AT&T and Verizon. No it is not happening! Whats even more absurd is the NFC support in iPhone 4S that BGR claims and skips the same for iPhone 5. Hard to digest that NFC is coming to iPhone and even if so, just one one of the models.
Add to this, Apple clearly stated during the Verizon deal that its last exclusivity agreement globally has ended. The iPhone isn’t exclusive to anyone, anywhere, anymore!
What is acceptable is a category killer cheaper iPhone model. May be iPhone 4 repacked with new goodies in a cheaper plastic case or something else. Also understandable that a LTE iPhone would come early in 2012, but the level to which the Sprint rumor is being pitched at, let us be the one to claim: it is all gas.