Rumors that Apple will sell its upcoming iPhone 5 through Sprint is just the next step in what one analyst views as a tactic the tech giant can use to grow iPhone and iPad sales.
“The company has increasingly moved away from the exclusive carrier model and has been using country and carrier expansion as one way to drive growth of its iPhone and iPad lines,” UBS analyst Maynard Um told investors Wednesday. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Sprint has been added to Apple’s list of U.S. iPhone 5 carriers. The handset is expected to roll out in October.
The delay from September will have only a small impact on Apple revenue, Um believes.
Sprint would add 52 million customers to the iPhone audience in the United States and is the third-largest wireless carrier behind Verizon and AT&T.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
