The iPhone 5 News Blog

Sprint made big news in 2011 by onboarding the iPhone 4S into its inventory, and boasting of big 4G LTE plans for 2012. But little has been reported on Sprint offering the rumored 4G LTE iPad 3, and few rumors out there paint a grim picture.

Run a Google News search for “Sprint iPad 3,” and you’ll find little out there that addresses the issue. While plenty has already been written about the iPad 3 being 4G LTE and how it will debut on both AT&T and Verizon’s 4G LTE networks, Sprint has been left out of the conversation by and large. Even the iPhone 5 News Blog has little to draw from in our 17 months of writing that triangulates Apple, Sprint, and the iPad. Only this rather amusing anti-iPad advertisement from Sprint is worth noting.

Other blogs and news sites have little to add. Daily Tech had this to say: “It has been confirmed that AT&T and Verizon Wireless will both sell a version of the iPad 3 that has 4G capabilities. Both AT&T and Verizon are currently the only two carriers who sell the iPad. At this point, it’s uncertain if other carriers like Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA will also sell the new iPad.”

News Sizzle was even more demonstrably negative: “According to industry sources, Sprint will be left somewhat lagging behind when the iPad 3 launch comes about in March, as the new LTE model will not be supported,” though they never substantiate these reports in the article.

For Sprint customers, this comes as a bit of a surprise, since, as you will recall, Sprint themselves boasted of the wide-ranging investments being made into a shiny, new 4G LTE infrastructure back in 2011, just around the time the iPhone 4S was released on Sprint. The iPhone 5 News Blog covered a long, tedious Sprint press conference, held just days after Tim Cook announced the iPhone 4S, wherein after heralding the addition of the iPhone, spent the lion’s share of time telling the media how Sprint would be ready to onboard 4G LTE devices soon into 2012. This is what we reported back in October: “We were explicitly told in the press conference that Sprint’s first 4G devices will be dual-mode CDMA/LTE devices — including tablets and smartphones — and that they will begin to be available in mid 2012, expecting 15 4G-ready devices in the first wave.”

It can be argued that “mid 2012″ is not March, and so while Sprint would appear to be on track for a 4G LTE iPhone 5, they made no promises about having the 4G LTE iPad 3 ready to go by this point in the year. But for a company that continues to struggle in spite of gaining the iPhone, how will Sprint mitigate the loss of either not carrying the iPad 3, or otherwise getting it a few months late? By that time, all chances of prospecting for new subscribers with the iPad 3 (on a flat rate data plan) will be all but dried up, with only the Sprint subscriber base to sell to.

There is one possible alternative to Sprint passing on the iPad 3: there is some sense that they might add the iPad 2 at the same time that iOS 5.1 is released. According to the IBTimes, “Code for the iPad 3 was discovered in November when Apple released its iOS 5.1 beta update to developers, which accidentally revealed references to a next-generation iPhone and two next-gen iPads, internally named iPhone 5,1, iPad 2,4 and iPad 3,3, respectively. Analysts believe the iPad listed as “iPad 2,4″ is not a new iPad, but rather an upgraded iPad 2 with WiMAX functionality, possibly powered by Sprint.” The notion of Sprint releasing the iPad 2 on the same day that iOS 5.1 — and possibly the iPad 3 — are released, however, just has bad optics. How could anyone on the “Now Network” get excited with having the opportunity to purchase a 3G iPad 2 when the 4G LTE iPad 3 has just been released? It may not actually be an Epic Fail, but it will sure look like one.

With Apple purportedly set to mainstream 4g LTE into the marketplace with the iPad 3 and iPhone 5, it is essentially that Sprint delivers on all of its audacious promises for have a stellar 4G network. Starting out by missing the iPad 3 release date will not be a start in a good direction.

By Michael Nace