iPhone难救美国电信业

2012-04-28 00:00:00来源：FT中文网

　　　　It looked, for a moment there, like Apple was riding to the rescue at Sprint. Yesterday, the telecommunications company reported a smaller loss than expected in the first quarter. It sold 1.5m iPhones in its second quarter of offering the device, and some 660,000 of those went to new customers. The stock spiked 7 per cent in early trading. A slightly harder look reveals that growth remains dull at Sprint – which, combined with greyish first-quarter results from AT and Tand Verizon, paint a dreary picture of the US telecoms industry. Sprint’s namesake wireless brand did add 263,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter. But that is an expansion of less than 1 per cent. And if you add in Sprint’s rotting Nextel brand, postpaid subscribers fell by 192,000.
　　　　有那么一瞬间，仿佛苹果(Apple)正出手解救Sprint公司一样。该电信公司昨日公布一季度报告，亏损略低于预期。在它销售苹果iPhone手机的第二个季度中，销售量达150万部，其中66万部由新客户购买。其股价在早盘飙升了7%。但仔细观察发现，Sprint的增长仍较平淡，这与美国其它两家运营商AT and T和Verizon在第一季度的沉闷业绩一起，描绘出美国电信业的不景气画面。Sprint的同名无线品牌确实在第一季度为其新增了26.3万后付费客户。但这一扩张还不到1%。如果算上Sprint旗下糟糕的Nextel品牌，则后付费客户数量减少了19.2万。
　　　　Verizon and AT and T did a bit better, adding 500,000 and a bit under 200,000 respectively. But again, these are gains of less than 1 per cent, and probably came mostly at the expense of Sprint and T-Mobile. The bright spot for Sprint is that average revenue per user, which rose nearly $4 in the first quarter, to about $60, is much better than at AT and T or Verizon. That helped margins, but they are still well below where they were a year ago, pre-iPhone.
　　　　Verizon和AT and T公司的情况好一些，用户人数分别增加50万和近20万。但话说回来，这些仍是小于1%的增长，而且很可能主要源自Sprint和T-Mobile的客户流失。Sprint的亮点是，每用户平均营收(ARPU)在第一季度增长4美元，至60美元左右，远远高于AT and T或Verizon。这有助于推高利润率，但仍远低于一年前（即开售iPhone之前）的水平。
　　　　The hard fact is that the US wireless industry is not very profitable for the two biggest carriers, and downright painful for the third. Cash return on tangible assets at Verizon and AT and T is around 7.5 per cent. At Sprint, which lacks scale and is investing in both the iPhone and a new network, it is 1 per cent. These are not impressive numbers for companies with big holdings of an increasingly scarce asset, wireless spectrum.
　　　　这里的硬道理是，对美国两家最大的运营商来说，无线行业的利润并不可观，而对第三大运营商来说，则是彻底的痛苦。Verizon和AT and T有形资产的现金回报率在7.5%左右。而在既欠缺规模、又同时投资于iPhone和新网络的Sprint，只有1%。对于持有大量频谱这一日益稀缺资源的公司来说，这可不算什么了不起的数字。
　　　　By the close yesterday, Sprint’s gains had disappeared. Apple may well be riding to someone’s rescue, but it is not Sprint’s, or its shareholders’.
　　　　截至昨日收盘，Sprint的涨幅已经完全消失。苹果也许会救某些企业，但是得益者肯定不是Sprint或其股东。
　　　　

本文关键字: Sprint