Apple Deal Forces Comcast, Charter To Sell Thousands Of Devices

As part of their deal to carry iPhones, Charter and Comcast are being forced by Apple to sell large numbers of iPads and other devices, CNBC reports — a move they have to accept in order to get the high-demand iPhone on their fledgling wireless offerings.

The two cablecos decided they couldn’t offer a viable wireless competitor without the iPhone, which gave Apple heavy leverage in talks.

Comcast for example has to sell a certain number of iPads (in the thousands) at a subsidized cost and eat the price difference, an aspect that helped Apple when it was concerned about iPad sales, Alex Sherman reports.

Charter’s deal is different: It sells Apple TV devices which can serve as set-tops for Charter service, and therefore it doesn’t have the same subsidized sales requirement. But because of the deal, Charter has become the largest third-party seller of Apple TVs.―Seeking Alpha