Despite steady growth in the list of High Performance User Equipment (HPUE) devices by US operator Sprint, one major smartphone vendor remains noticeably absent: Apple.
Sprint this week announced the launch of its 10th HPUE-capable phone in the ten months since the technology made its debut. HPUE technology boosts the coverage characteristics of Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum so it performs similarly to the operator’s 1.9GHz airwaves. At a launch event for the technology in December, Sprint COO of Technology Gunther Ottendorfer said compatible devices will give customers better performance indoors and at the cell edge, as well as increased capacity without any other changes on the network side.
A Sprint representative told Mobile World Live the operator expects more than 10 per cent of its smartphone base to have an HPUE-enabled phone by the end of 2017. The figure is anticipated to grow to more than 33 per cent of the base in 2018, she added.
Flagship models already on the list of compatible devices include Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8 Plus and Note 8; Google’s Pixel 2; and LG’s V30 Plus and G6 among others. But the Sprint representative noted Apple did not include the technology in any of its latest iPhones.
Apple impact
The vendor could not immediately be reached for comment on whether it plans to include HPUE in forthcoming devices. But the omission of new operator technologies is significant due to the large market share Apple holds in the US.
In the three months to end-August, Kantar WorldPanel Comtech noted Apple devices accounted for more than a third (35 per cent) of smartphones sales in the market. Apple was nearly tied with Samsung, which reportedly had a 35.2 per cent share in the same timeframe.
However, ComScore in June pegged Apple’s market share even higher, reporting it as nearly 45 per cent compared with Samsung’s 29 per cent.
Other snubs
Sprint isn’t the only US operator to get the short end of the stick when it comes to Apple.
T-Mobile US spent nearly $8 billion in the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum incentive auction (which concluded in April), buying up broad swathes of 600MHz airwaves across the county. The operator is already deploying the new spectrum in a handful of areas, but it won’t make a difference for customers who pick up the new iPhone 8 or iPhone X.
Despite comments from T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray indicating the operator was “pushing very hard” to have Apple include 600MHz compatibility in its new devices, specifications show the band didn’t make the cut in the latest iPhones.
Apple began accepting orders for its 10th anniversary smartphone, iPhone X, today (27 October). Shipments are scheduled to begin on 3 November.
