A new reports puts to bed many of the rumours we have been reading about what Apple is going to release tomorrow at the Let's Talk iPhone event. Apple will release iPhone 5 tomorrow, but only Sprint will have exclusive rights to sell it in the USA.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint has signed a $20 billion deal with Apple. Under that deal, Sprint is going to buy over 30 million iPhones from Apple for four years. It is expected that Sprint isn't going to break even on this deal until 2014 but thanks to this deal, they have secured exclusive rights to sell iPhone 5 in USA.
Industry sources have said time and again that Sprint is getting the iPhone 5 this year. The full feature packed redesigned iPhone 5, not the slightly refreshed iPhone 4S which has a lot of evidence supporting its alleged release tomorrow. The iPhone 5 is going to be a 4G capable WiMAX device available exclusively from Sprint. Source also suggest that Apple will release two iPhones tomorrow, the other being iPhone 4S. AT&T and Verizon Wireless will only be getting iPhone 4S at the moment as they won't begin selling iPhone 5 until at least the first quarter of 2012, that's when they'll sell LTE iPhone 5.
The iPhone 4S will have an A5 dual-core CPU, better camera, multiband 3G chipset and NFC support. The iPhone 5 will be totally redesigned and will have a faster CPU and more RAM, larger screen and battery. So if these sources are believe to be true, mind you they are very well connected, AT&T and Verizon will only be getting the iPhone 4S this year whereas Sprint is going to be the only carrier that will exclusively sell iPhone 5 in USA, as well as the only carrier to offer an unlimited data plan for iPhone 5.
Something's amiss though. Why would Apple give exclusive selling rights of its most anxiously awaited smartphone to the third largest carrier of USA? Why not give it to AT&T and Verizon as both of them have a higher subscriber base? It's seems almost unlikely for a Sprint exclusive iPhone 5 to happen but if this $20 billion deal does entail that Sprint is going to sell iPhone 5 exclusively, they will have an immense influx of new subscribers switching in from AT&T and Verizon just for the sake of getting the iPhone 5. The question then would be that is Sprint's network capable of handling a massive amount of new subscribers that will be joining its already burgeoning subscriber base?
If this deal is happening, Sprint will earn a lot more than its putting at risk here for sure. People are literally crazy about the iPhone 5 and most of them won't think twice if required to switch over to Sprint. We won't make any conclusions here though at the moment, as less than a day remains until Tim Cook reveals everything we're so desperate to know about the upcoming iPhone(s). Be sure to follow our Let's Talk iPhone event live coverage tomorrow as we'll be breaking updates from Apple Town Hall Auditorium in Cupertino California.