Submitted by Marshall Walker on
We've heard it all before, Apple is adding T-Mobile and Sprint to its roster of iPhone carriers, but Piper Jaffray analyst Chris Larsen and analyst Shing Yin of Citadel Securities believe 2011 is the year Apple will actually make the move.
Most analysts seem to agree that if Apple wants to compete with the growing Android Market, they will have to make their products more accessible. The days of Apple exclusivity are over, and Larsen's crystal ball says the iPhone being offered by all four national carriers will increase Apple's market share by 30 percent.
"While we remain uncertain regarding the next-generation iPhone's specs and features, we believe the most noteworthy change could be the device's ability to run on more networks, specifically Sprint and T-Mobile in the U.S.," Larsen wrote in his analyst report.
In June, a T-Mobile spokesperson said they were carrying more than a million unlocked iPhones on their network, and Google is rumored to be picking up its game by releasing its next generation devices on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint at the same time. If Apple truly wants to increase its share of the mobile phone market, adding more carriers doesn't seem like such a bad idea.