Sprint says iPhone 50% more efficient than 3G/4G smartphones

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse made an eyebrow-raising claim during the carrier's third-quarter earnings call Wednesday (CP: Sprint defends decision, will need up to $7 billion in financing help). Apple's iPhone, he said, is 50% more efficient than a dual-mode 3G/4G Android handset.

After years of witnessing AT&T struggle to support its iPhone users, the industry wondered how the much-smaller Sprint would handle the onslaught of new traffic. Though to a lesser extent, the question was also raised when Verzion got its iPhone, and reported alongside studies finding Android device owners to be larger consumers of data.

But was it the consumers, or the phones? And is the Sprint statement even true?

Hesse asserted:

There is a misperception that our launch of the iPhone will increase the load on Sprint's 3G network and require us to spend more 3G capital. The reverse is true. iPhone users are expected to use significantly less 3G than the typical user of a dual-mode 3G/4G device. Even adjusting for more total new customers being added to the network, we believe will put less load on our 3G network than they would have if we did not carry the iPhone.

Hesse went on to explain that, in part because of this, iPhone users will offer Sprint a 50% better "customer lifetime value" figure than other handsets.

Sprint's claims are notable, "if not short on evidence," said BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk in a blog post. He noted that studies Sprint cited were performed with iPhones that used slower speeds than those available and didn't interact with iCloud. He additionally pointed to a Sprint user forum, with 190,000-plus views, complaining of slow download speeds, despite the Sprint iPhone's very recent launch.

"Sprint’s response is that they are happy with the performance and 'getting the kind of throughput we expected' but at the same time they are 'working with Apple' to address the issue that they claim does not exist," wrote Piecyk.

In any event, he continued:

Two weeks of usage by customers that might be suffering from abnormally slow download speeds is hardly material to confirm studies done on phones with slower chips, slower networks and no iCloud services. Sprint also did not provide any details on how they expect average usage per phone to increase going forward even though it believes that Apple will support it with a faster LTE phone in the future. Finally, Verizon has told us that overall usage on an iPhone, once the customer has had the product for a while, is comparable to Android usage.

The matter also raises a question about the current state of AT&T service. If AT&T struggled to support the iPhone, which is reportedly more efficient than Android devices, and AT&T's new strategy, since losing its exclusive deal with Apple, has been to aggressively round out its portfolio with a number of Android handsets (as well as RIM and Windows phones), how is the service over there these days?