iPhone News Updated

Apple drops carrier revenue sharing model for iPhone?

While we’ve earlier reported that when the original iPhone came out Apple was getting a healthy revenue split from carriers’ revenues on talk and data fees generated by iPhone users, it seems that this practice won’t be followed after the 3G iPhone is launched in the 70 countries that already have a contract for its distribution. Or, at least, it won’t be followed everywhere.

Fortune Magazine reports that in an 8-K form that Apple filed with the SEC it [Apple] reveals that:

“Under the vast majority of these agreements, Apple will not receive follow-on revenue generating payments from carriers,” which would amount to “potential dilution to earnings per share (EPS) from this initiative in the $0.10 to $0.12 range this year and next.”

It looks like the announced carrier subsidy for the 3G iPhone is partially responsible for that, as well as the fact that in many of the poorer countries where the iPhone is due to come out carriers simply can’t afford paying that extra revenue split % to manufacturers of mobile devices (read: Apple).

Whether this is a good business decision for Apple or not, only time can tell.

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