I do think its stupid how Sprint does their release and makes you wait months, but whatever.
all carriers do it you just don't hear about it as much with the everyday devices, it's the iconic ones that get the most hype built and why you feel like you're being made to wait for it... it's been no secret for months that the fourth version of the iphone will launch in June.
and believe me, sprint wants this to launch asap but it takes a ton of work from the manufacturer to build it to carrier specs, then for them to build up the inventory needed by the carrier, then for the carrier to tweak, load and test the software on all the devices the manufacturer delivered, exactly how it wants it to operate. and that's just the hardware/software of the device, no mention of all the training of the sales reps, development of commercials/marketing strategy, training of care reps, pricing models, etc.... the development cycle on these things is measured in years, not months. it's a very complex process.