Sprint will sell an estimated 6 million iPhone 5 handsets when Apple comes to the Now Network in October. This infusion will breathe new life into the US market for the iPhone while unleashing Sprints iPhone-starved masses into the Apple fold. Sprint will also sell the iPhone 4 at reduced prices.
HTC EVO 4G Android Phone (Sprint)
Good news, bad news
Although the move to bring iPhone to Sprint is great news for Apple and great news for Sprint, the move is a cause for mourning for millions of people who enjoy the Sprint unlimited data plan.
Disparaging tech media talking points
Incidentally, the techno-media talking points put out on major news outlets call Sprint the network for people with credit issues, NOT the network for people who enjoy the best data plans on the market.
Unlimited no more?
So the news that Sprint users can now have iPhones is grand, but in the end, it will likely sound the death knell for unlimited data. The final nail in the coffin. The last Hoorah.
Historical precedent
Of course, speculation that Sprint will end its cozy relationship with its smartphone users is built on something curious: observable fact. Data traffic from the iPhone first led AT&T to cancel its unlimited data plans after the network was overloaded by Apple-ites. All was well at Verizon Wireless until the iPhone showed up there and – Whamo! – the Apple-ites overloaded that network too (can you hear me now?) and the company surreptitiously KO’ed its unlimited data plans. Why would Sprint be any different? How about, because the CEO Dan Hesse has bragged about the Sprint unlimited data plan on TV commercials? NAH. What does the word of some CEO of a company mean? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
So while the mobile world goes bonkers over the news that Apple has now swallowed up all three major US carriers, I’ll be sitting in my corner lamenting, enjoying the last fleeting moments I have with my unlimited data plan.
No comments yet.