In the U.S., the battle for lucrative smartphone subscribers got more intense on Friday as Sprint Nextel Corp. became the nation's third carrier to offer the AppleInc.'s iPhone.

The stakes were high across the country as the latest model of Apple's handset went on sale in stores, but nowhere more so than at Sprint outlets. The nation's third largest wireless carrier made a multibillion-dollar gamble that the iPhone would boost the company in its fight against larger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless. From June 2010 to June 2011, Sprint lost 264,000 contract customers-the kind of customers Sprint hopes to win back with the iPhone.

So far, the bet looks like it is paying off as Sprint reported that it is selling out of the device at some locations across the country. However, by selling out of the device Sprint also frustrated some new customers.

"Sprint today reported its best ever day of sales in retail, web and telesales for a device family in Sprint history with the launch of iPhone 4S and iPhone 4," said Sprint product chief Fared Adib, in a statement.

As has become the custom for Apple product launches, across the globe throngs of eager customers lined up in front stores to be among the first to get their hands on the new phone.

"I had to cancel some lunch plans," said Adam Metzger, a 21-year-old waiting in New York. "But the iPhone, once I get it, can reschedule my lunch plans for me."
AT&T and Verizon Wireless as well saw strong demand for the new iPhone 4S. A Verizon spokeswoman said the company was seeing brisk traffic at its stores and said she hadn't heard of stores running out of inventory. AT&T said it was on track to double its previous record for activations on a single day.

AT&Thad its own issues, though, as some users trying to activate their new iPhones reported problems with the carrier's computer systems that didn't allow them to get their devices working. High volumes "may produce slower activations for some customers, though our systems continue to run at record levels," AT&T said in a statement.

Analysts expect AT&T and Verizon, which both have more than twice as many contract subscribers than Sprint, to win the lion's share of iPhone customers. In the fourth quarter, Sprint will activate 1.2 million iPhone customers, compared to 4.5 million at Verizon and 4.3 million at AT&T, estimates UBS AG analyst John Hodulik. In 2012, Mr. Hodulik expects Sprint to activate 5.2 million iPhone users, compared with 14 million for Verizon and 12 million for AT&T.
Each carrier is stressing their respective strengths. Sprint is pushing its unlimited data plan, Verizon the breadth and quality of its network, and AT&T says the latest iPhone model runs faster on its network than on Sprint or Verizon, which use a different wireless technology.
For the phone companies, one key number to watch will be how many people are switching from one carrier to another. With the number of wireless-subscriber connections in the U.S. now greater than the total population, the competition between wireless carriers now increasingly amounts to stealing customers away from one another. At a recent industry conference, Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse said the lack of the iPhone is "the No. 1 reason customers leave or switch."
The carriers' targets were people like Marques Sanders, a T-Mobile USA customer in New York City who was lined up outside a Sprint store in New York's Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. But just before the 8 a.m. opening, Sprint store associates informed Mr. Sanders and about 10 other iPhone hopefuls waiting outside that the store wouldn't have any of the handset's latest models for sale to people who didn't preorder.
The people waiting were redirected to a bigger Sprint store a few blocks away, where, less than an hour later, an employee broke the news to the roughly 30 people lined up that this store, too, had run out of the latest model, the iPhone 4S. Mr. Sanders and his sister Shentel ended up settling for the previous model, the iPhone 4.
"A pretty frustrating morning," said Ms. Sanders.

In Houston, Scott Aronstein, whose company Connectivity Source owns 24 Sprint stores in Texas and Louisiana, said it took an hour for the iPhone 4S to sell out at all of his locations.
In the U.S., the odd carrier out is now T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG of Bonn, Germany. Its future is in limbo with the government trying to block AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile, and it faces an even tougher battle for customers now that it's the country's biggest carrier without the iPhone.
To compete, T-Mobile is pushing advanced phones running Google Inc.'s Android operating system. "We've made it clear to them we do want it but we don't think we're missing anything in terms of technology or experience," said Andrew Sherrard, T-Mobile's senior vice president of marketing. Apple declined to comment.
—Geoffrey A. Fowler contributed to this article.

Source - [ online.wsj.com ]