The recent announcement that confirmed Sprint Nextel’s acquisition of the rights to the iPhone 5 come October led to a great deal of excitement among Sprint customers. Prior to this innovation, the wildly popular Smartphone from Apple was reserved for LTE powerhouses AT&T and Verizon. A Sprint iPhone is indicative of a WiMAX iPhone in the near future.
Adding to the fervor, the internet is now abuzz with the rumor that there will be a WiMAX iPad available to Sprint customers as well. The ultra-slim device, which dominates the tablet market, is said to be available to consumers in time for the holiday season. If the rumors are true, the iPad will be only the 2nd 4G tablet in Sprint’s lineup which currently consists of the HTC Evo View 4G, certainly not one of the bigger players in the tablet industry.
The advent of Apple devices is a very good omen for Sprint, who has taken its share of hits over the last few months. It is currently embroiled in a prolonged legal dispute with AT&T over their desired $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile, which Sprint claims will destroy their market share. Clearwire, the company that produces WiMAX 4G technology and in which Sprint is a majority shareholder, has been limping along recently and proven a drain on Sprint’s resources.
Sprint thus hopes that the Apple devices, considered the cutting edge in consumer technology, will add a sleek and hip veneer to their image.
Sprint recently scrapped plans to jointly develop a 4G-enabled tablet with Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry and the Blackberry Playbook Tablet. This revelation came as a blow to both RIM and Sprint, who were hoping to establish more of a presence in the burgeoning tablet industry. A WiMAX iPad would certainly bridge that gap for Sprint.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
noooooo dont do it…. go with LTE!!!!!!!!!!!
wimax is totally NOT suitable for use in cars and stuff