Technology | Sprint Sprint 'Betting the Company' on the iPhone Carrier needs roster addition, but it's going to cost a fortune By Kevin Spak Posted Oct 4, 2011 11:05 AM CDT Copied In this file photo taken June 29, 2010, the Apple iPhone 4 is shown at the Apple Store, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, file) Sprint may or may not be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 5 until sometime in early 2012—but it’s betting massively that just adding Apple's beloved smartphone to its roster will be its salvation. Sprint has committed to buy 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years, at a cost of $20 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports. To sell all those phones, it’ll have to either double its subscriber base, shift all its existing customers to the iPhone, or some combination of the two. And even if Sprint manages to double its subscribers, the deal still won’t pay off until 2014, because it’ll only pass $200 of the phone’s cost on to customers. “This is a bet-the-company kind of thing,” a Sprint insider says, calling the projected hit to the company’s operating income “staggering.” Investors seem wary of that gamble; Sprint shares fell 10% in after-hours trading when the terms of the deal broke yesterday. Read These Next White House rolls with Trump's 'daddy' nickname. New Fox star, 23, misses first day after car troubles. Supreme Court ruling is a big blow to Planned Parenthood. Man accused of killing his daughters might be dead. Report an error