iPhone drives Sprint growth, but drags loss to $1.3B

Sprint Nextel saw the biggest surge in new customers in six years thanks to the iPhone, but that growth came at a hefty price.

Sprint reported a loss of $1.3 billion, or 43 cents a share. In the year-ago quarter, the company posted a loss of $929 million, or 31 cents a share. The results included a loss of $241 million, or 8 cents a share, due to one-time costs related to asset charges on property, plant, equipment, as well as severance costs, and its investment in Clearwire, which provides Sprint with 4G WiMax service.

Wall Street analyst had an average forecast of a loss of 37 cents a share on revenue of $8.69 billion.

Like Verizon and AT&T, Sprint showed impressive customer growth in the period as customers lined up to buy the iPhone 4S. But also like its larger rivals, the company paid out a massive amount in subsidies to Apple. The result: a setback to the company's road to profitability.

The dilemma is the more iPhones are sold, the bigger the near-term hit. Sprint activated 1.8 million iPhones in the period, and said 40 percent of those activations came from customers new to Sprint. Unlike Verizon and AT&T, Sprint offers an unlimited data plan alongside the iPhone.


That Sprint posted a loss isn't a shocker; the company has warned that costs related to the iPhone, as well as its 4G LTE network deployment, would pressure margins in the coming year. Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer warned the iPhone was going to be 40 percent more expensive than other smartphones. The company is asking Wall Street for a bit of patience as it works to deploy its own next-generation network and gets its customer growth back on track.

Hesse has said he is willing to pay the high costs of the iPhone because missing out on the product has been the company's biggest source of customer defection. With the iPhone, he hopes to garner more loyal customers willing to pay more revenue each month.

Sprint added a total of 1.6 million net new customers, driven in part by 161,000 customers who signed a long-term contract with Sprint. Getting to growth in so-call postpaid customers has been a challenge for Sprint because results have always been weighed down by losses on the Nextel side.

The flagship Sprint brand added 539,000 new postpaid customers, while Nextel lost 378,000 customers. The defections continue as the company prepares to shut down the Nextel's iDEN network next year.

It also added a net 507,,000 prepaid customers who signed up through its Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile services, and its government-subsidized low-income Assurance Wireless offering. The results include losses from the Nextel prepaid services.

Its wholesale business, which Sprint leans on heavily for growth, added 954,000 net new customers through resellers and affiliates.

Sprint reported a customer turnover rate of 1.98 percent, a tick up from 1.86 percent a year ago. The company blamed the higher defection on involuntary disconnections from customers who couldn't pay their bills or violated their terms and conditions. Sprint said it tightened its credit standards in the third and fourth quarter to avoid seeing similar issues.
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Google's iPad Killer Ready in 6 Months, Says Eric Schmidt

Soon Google could show tablet makers like ASUS, HTC, Lenovo, and Motorola how a real Android tablet is made. During an interview with an Italian newspaper this week, Eric Schmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman, mentioned plans “to market a tablet of the highest quality”.

The idea sounds similar to Google’s Nexus line of smartphones.

Google typically helms the designs of those devices, and the final products are usually treated as the ideal pairing of hardware with Android software.

Though the often-talkative Schmidt says little else along the lines of confirmed plans, he does give the tablet a six month window.

The rest of the article finds Schmidt waxing on the nature of capitalism and the spirit of competition between Apple and Google, as well as American tech makers taking on new products from manufacturers in Europe and Asia.

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* Tablets Guide

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Aiseesoft Updates Mac iPad Manager Platinum to Fully Support iOS 5

BEIJING, Dec. 26, 2011 -- /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- To help users have a better experience on iPads running the new iOS 5, Aiseesoft has updated the Mac iPad Manager Platinum. This iPad transferring software is specially designed for Mac users to export iPad files to Macs, iTunes and other Apple devices, import local files to an iPad, convert DVD/video to iPad video, and so on.Aiseesoft's charming Mac iPad Transfer can help users export all iPad files (movie, music, picture, TV show, podcast, iTunes U, eBook, camera roll, voice memos, camera shot, etc.) to a Mac for backup. It also supports copying all these files to iTunes on a Mac. Moreover, this transferring software enables users to transfer iPad files to other Apple devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod) with simple operations.In addition, Aiseesoft's Mac iPad Transfer Platinum can import local music, video, ePub, PDF, image and ringtone files to an iPad or a Mac. Then users can conveniently enjoy these files on their iPad anywhere and anytime. To help users enjoy DVDs or any video file on an iPad, this software offers users a professional solution to convert popular DVDs and video files to iPad-compatible video formats with super high converting speed. Furthermore, this amazing software can assist users to make iPhone ringtones with any popular source DVD/video/audio file. And it can backup iPhone SMS (MMS) and Contacts onto a Mac.Now this Mac iPad transfer software is perfectly compatible with the new iOS 5, and it supports all Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod devices, including the latest iPhone 4S and iPad 2. It is definitely one of the best assistant tools for any iOS device. To learn more about this Mac iPad Manager Platinum, please visit: http://www.aiseesoft.com/ipad-manager-for-mac.htmlMoreover, there is also a specialized Mac iPhone Transfer Platinum for iPhone users. It can provide iPhone users with high-quality services converting DVD/video to iPhone and transferring iPhone files.

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iPad Dominated Tablet Market in Q3; Kindle Fire, Nook Catching Up

Apple's iPad device continued to dominate the tablet PC market in the third quarter, but rivals like Amazon and Barnes and Nobel are not too far behind.

New data released by market research firm IDC revealed that Apple accounted for 61 per cent of sales in the tablet market, with the iPad 2 maker selling 11.1 million iPad units in the third quarter.

Overall the tablet market saw a year-on-year increase of 23.9 per cent in the third quarter with the total shipments rising to 18.1 million, the IDC report said, informed The Guardian.

Meanwhile, the number of Android tablets sold during the quarter increased to 6 million but the overall Android share in the tablet market dropped to 32.4 per cent from 33.2 per cent in the second quarter.

Analysts believe that with the arrival of Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes and Nobel Nook, Android's share in the tablet market will rise over 40 per cent.

"Apple's larger portfolio of tablet-specific apps, upcoming iPad versions, and growing physical store presence in key emerging markets like Asia/Pacific will help maintain its global leadership," said IDC analyst Jennifer Song.

"However, an improving Android OS experience and lower competitor pricing in an environment with worldwide economic concerns should help Android to increase its market share," she added.

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