Is Leap Struggling to Sell iPhones?

A partnership with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is not serving Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) as well as the operator would have hoped. Leap, whose prepaid service Cricket started carrying the iPhone in June last year, said in a securities filing that it only expected to sell about half the devices it committed to in the first year of its agreement with Apple.

Leap said it could end up with $100 million worth of unsold iPhones by June, though it added that it was working to improve sales with marketing and financing options for buyers.

The acknowledgement, made in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was something of a surprise, as chief operating officer Jerry Elliott had said in a conference call with analysts last week that “sales of Apple devices were pretty good in the fourth quarter.”

Leap spokesman Gregory Lund told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the company was in discussions with Apple. Lund said Leap had also seen lower-than-expected overall customer additions in the fourth quarter.

The news would also be an upsetting one for Apple, which has been dealing with its own concerns over slowed iPhone sales…