
Apple forcing operators to buy phones - even if they can't sell them - AndrewDucker
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/29/revealed_the_secret_apple_deals_that_squeeze_rivals_and_tax_you/
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guiambros
_" The deals for the Galaxy S4 were almost as restrictive as Apple's," one
source said. "But Samsung has a range of phones, and operators had choices."_

Well, operators _have_ choices. They can simply decide to not purchase Apple
phones - at least not in the 20 billion dollars scale.

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salient
This is also the reason why Apple started counting "shipped" iPhones this
year, starting with that "record 9 million iPhones in first weekend", that
everyone thought were _sold_ to customers, but in fact they were just shipped
to carriers.

[http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/09/24/apples-9-mi...](http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/09/24/apples-9-million-
iphones-may-not-be-so-impressive.aspx)

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astrodust
I don't think Apple has a large inventory just sitting around. They used to do
"channel stuffing" in the worst way possible back before Jobs, it was almost
criminally bad, but under Cook they've been running really lean.

Carriers might resent having to purchase so many, but I'm skeptical they're
stuck with unsold inventory.

