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Apple should seriously consider buying Sprint. When they first struck a deal with Cingular one of my first thoughts was they were picking a carrier that was wit

by jsz0 17y ago

Apple should seriously consider buying Sprint. When they first struck a deal with Cingular one of my first thoughts was they were picking a carrier that was within their reach to purchase down the road. Obviously AT&T had the same idea though. Given Apple's position in mobile electronics it would make a lot of sense to own their own data network. EVDO data in every device. iTunes Store over EVDO on every iPod. Extremely aggressive first party iPhone pricing on Sprint (while still selling a GSM model at a higher cost) They could really shake things up if they wanted to.

Xichekolas 17y ago
That is actually possible too, since Sprint's market cap is only $12.8b, and Apple's is $135b. A deal that is part cash, mostly Apple stock would probably go down well with current Sprint shareholders (the ones I know are fairly pessimistic about Sprint's future, but are holding in the hopes that the Pre helps, or it gets acquired for a premium). Sprint definitely has a history of horrible customer service, which maybe Apple could finally slay. I live in their home market (KC), so obviously coverage is great here, but not sure if it would be sufficient nationwide to be worth it to Apple. That said, Amazon apparently thinks coverage is sufficient for the Kindle. Definitely an interesting idea... who knows if Apple really wants to bother running the network though. It could take a while to raise network and customer service quality to meet Apple-customer expectations (ie. perfection), tarnishing Apple's hard-earned brand name along the way. Claiming all the successes (the device) and blaming all the problems (the network) on AT&T could be convenient.
derefr 17y ago
Apple would enjoy many benefits from buying a telecom company, but there's one factor that would almost certainly prevent it: anything bad the telecom did would then be blamed by the public (even if completely irrationally) on Apple. Apple makes most of their money from being the "sexy consumer electronics company", and no matter how you try to spin a telecom, you can't make it sexy. The only way Apple could successfully buy out a telecom would involve replacing the entire culture of the telecom with Apple's own dedication-to-snobby-perfection culture, which itself would involve replacing most of the employees and management with Apple's own. They'd have no one left to make computers!
- BrentRitterbeck 17y ago
  While Apple has the iPhone, they're not a telecom company. Few companies do well when they start to stray outside of their core competencies. Think Time Warner.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  Apple makes most of their money from being the "sexy consumer electronics company", and no matter how you try to spin a telecom, you can't make it sexy. They could buy Sprint and have it "spin-out" another company whose job it is to provide the communications for Apple's products. Apple would be hands-off the old Sprint, so long as the Apple-communications company got all the resources it needed.

by jsz0 17y ago

Xichekolas 17y ago

That is actually possible too, since Sprint's market cap is only $12.8b, and Apple's is $135b. A deal that is part cash, mostly Apple stock would probably go down well with current Sprint shareholders (the ones I know are fairly pessimistic about Sprint's future, but are holding in the hopes that the Pre helps, or it gets acquired for a premium). Sprint definitely has a history of horrible customer service, which maybe Apple could finally slay. I live in their home market (KC), so obviously coverage is great here, but not sure if it would be sufficient nationwide to be worth it to Apple. That said, Amazon apparently thinks coverage is sufficient for the Kindle. Definitely an interesting idea... who knows if Apple really wants to bother running the network though. It could take a while to raise network and customer service quality to meet Apple-customer expectations (ie. perfection), tarnishing Apple's hard-earned brand name along the way. Claiming all the successes (the device) and blaming all the problems (the network) on AT&T could be convenient.

derefr 17y ago

Apple would enjoy many benefits from buying a telecom company, but there's one factor that would almost certainly prevent it: anything bad the telecom did would then be blamed by the public (even if completely irrationally) on Apple. Apple makes most of their money from being the "sexy consumer electronics company", and no matter how you try to spin a telecom, you can't make it sexy. The only way Apple could successfully buy out a telecom would involve replacing the entire culture of the telecom with Apple's own dedication-to-snobby-perfection culture, which itself would involve replacing most of the employees and management with Apple's own. They'd have no one left to make computers!

BrentRitterbeck 17y ago
While Apple has the iPhone, they're not a telecom company. Few companies do well when they start to stray outside of their core competencies. Think Time Warner.
stcredzero 17y ago
Apple makes most of their money from being the "sexy consumer electronics company", and no matter how you try to spin a telecom, you can't make it sexy. They could buy Sprint and have it "spin-out" another company whose job it is to provide the communications for Apple's products. Apple would be hands-off the old Sprint, so long as the Apple-communications company got all the resources it needed.