Apple rumoured to be “turning the screws on operators”

Apple, stung by rapidly being overshadowed by Android, is rumoured to be fighting back by increasing operator’s stakes in their success.

According to MobileToday, Apple, the world’s richest company,  is asking carriers to provide greater financial support for advertising the next iPhone.

One carrier said: ‘It wants to put the onus on operators to support the iPhone.’

Carriers on the other hand are trying to move customers from iPhones to Android and Windows Phone handsets to avoid steep iPhone subsidies. Forcing carriers to invest even further in iPhone handsets will increase their impetrative to claw back their spending by selling as many iPhones as possible, a bind Sprint is finding itself in at present.

When MobileToday asked if companies would sign up to the revised terms, one source said: ‘It’s Apple; it’s a completely different beast from dealing with everybody else. It is such a large company and it gives you just enough information to scare the pants off you. Everyone is over a barrel.’

Anti-competitive moves such as this will make it more difficult for Android and Windows Phone, but as recent court proceedings against Samsung shows, Apple, whose success has been built on the iPhone, is showing some sign of desperation after being overtaken by the Korean OEM, who shipped twice as many smartphones as them the last quarter.

Read more at MobileToday here.