The Wall Street Journal’s Joann Lublin and Spencer Ante this afternoon report that Sprint-Nextel (S) agreed in advance to purchase 30.5 million units of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone in order to win the right to carry the device, citing multiple anonymous sources.
The authors say that amounts to a commitment on Sprint’s part of $20 billion over the course of four years.
Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone at an event at its headquarters tomorrow morning, and Sprint is widely expected to start carrying the device for the first time.
Update: BoyGeniusReport’s Jonathan Geller this afternoon writes in response to the WSJ story that he had already been told, over the course of several weeks, by an “industry contact” who is “incredibly solid” that Sprint will be granted the next iPhone — dubbed the “iPhone 5,” as an “exclusive.” The deal would have Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T) making due with a lesser model, an “iPhone 4S,” as Geller calls it, for another quarter or so until they are allowed to carry the iPhone 5.
Remarks Geller, “I told my source that even if Sprint paid Apple hundreds of millions, a Sprint iPhone 5 exclusive still would never happen. $20 billion in guaranteed iPhone sales, though? We�ll see tomorrow.
Geller offers a breakdown of what the two devices’ features might include.
Sprint shares closed the day down 31 cents, or 10%, at $2.73 and were unchanged in late trading.
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