Approach Boost Mobile iPhone rumors with caution

@evlinks tweeted about the iPhone coming to Boost Mobile in Q3. But before you start making plans to buy an iPhone from Boost, you could use a history lesson. That @evleaks tweet could just as easily have come from last year. The first rumblings of a Boost iPhone came last June when the site Techno Buffalo cited a “trusted source” who said that Boost would get the iPhone in September — Q3, for those not familiar with the quarterly calendar breakdown. It turns out we should have listened to 9to5Mac’s sources, who said that the rumor was “purely fiction.” Obviously we never got that Boost iPhone. Of course, exactly a day after we heard those Boost rumors, we learned that Virgin Mobile, which like Boost is a subsidiary of Sprint, would carry the iPhone. So perhaps there was just a virtual game of telephone going on there, wherein Boost becomes Virgin, and Q3 becomes Q2. This iPhone rumor is a bit more believable, because of a few factors. First, we know that Sprint has a contract with Apple and wants to get rid of devices. Perhaps Virgin represented an experiment of sorts, and perhaps that experiment was deemed a success. Moreover, there’s a good chance that Apple will announce its next-gen iPhone in Q3, meaning carriers like Sprint will have to start getting rid of older units. Using Boost to distribute iPhone 4, 4S, and 5 models will allow the main Sprint brand to focus on the 5S, or whatever new model Apple announces. So yes, approach this rumor with extra caution, since we’ve heard it before. But it does seem believable. In fact, given the way things unfolded last year, perhaps we’ll see the iPhone at Boost before Q3. But don’t get your hopes up.]]>