Rumor: Sprint to Offer Apple’s iPhone 5 in October

Whether it’s real or just another rumor, this report would certainly catch the attention of most iPhone consumers. The Wall Street Journal had recently announced that Sprint will offer the 5th-generation iPhone once it has been released in “mid-October”, making it the third U.S. carrier to sell the iPhone 5, following AT&T and Verizon.

Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said, closing a huge hole in the No. 3 U.S. carrier’s lineup and giving Apple Inc. another channel for selling its popular phone.

The timing, however, indicates Apple’s new iPhone will hit the market later than expected and too late to contribute to sales in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in September. Most observers had expected the device to arrive next month.

Sprint, one of the nation’s largest wireless service provider, is said to be the third to receive the anticipated device after Apple launched with AT&T in 2007 and with Verizon this year. Perhaps this is a good way to save the company from being left behind by Verizon and AT&T/T-Mobile’s merging.

When Apple released a CDMA version of its 4th-gen iPhone for Verizon, AT&T was then considered to be the official iPhone carrier in the U.S until the first quarter of this year. Sprint, on the other hand, also operates a CDMA network and is said to be receiving the iPhone 4 as well.

Meanwhile, the Sprint iPhone has been one of the hottest topics in the industry to date. These speculations started way back in May when an Apple job posting was placed near the Sprint’s Kansas headquarters.

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