Sprint Encourages Employees To Stay Mum On iPhone 5

We have been hearing for weeks about the possibility of Sprint getting the iPhone. Steve Jobs may be gone as Apple CEO but the company still needs a strong iPhone 5 launch to continue its dominant presence in the smartphone market. Many CEOs have been complimentary to Steve Jobs. But Sprint CEO was especially full of praise for him. That gave us some additional clues about the current relationship between the two companies:

Everyone underestimated how incredibly successful the iPhone would be…We took the iPhone seriously, but Nokia management underestimated it, certainly. We were much more concerned at the time with RIM.. The value of simplicity is something that so many businesses don’t understand, but boy did Steve Jobs.

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse explained. This statement by itself does not indicate anything. After all, Steve Jobs was truly great when it came to understanding the concept of simplicity in Apple products. Mr. Hesse was asked about the possibility of iPhone coming to Sprint. He declined to comment. Now the company is asking employees to stay quiet on this topic (according to a memo leaked by SprintFeed):

A recent Wall Street Journal article mentioned that Sprint is getting the iPhone 5 … If you’re asked by a customer or just talking to friends or family members, you need to avoid making any comment about the iPhone and simply state “no comment.

This memo is quite interesting as it even discusses what employees are to say when asked specific questions about Sprint iPhone (e.g. questions on the WSJ report suggesting Sprint would get iPhone). Sprint only has about 52M subscribers but many of them are expected to jump on-board with the iPhone. Sprint has been strongly opposing the merger of T-Mobile and AT&T. iPhone 5 may provide it with the boost it needs to stay competitive against the top two carriers.

Sprint customers, how excited are you about the iPhone potentially being offered by your carrier?