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No surprise that Apple are developing an iphone suitable for T-Mobile and other carriers that use the same spectrum. It is only AT&T's exclusivity that's held them back so long. And it's only that exclusivity that's held them back from offering unsubsidised, unlocked iPhones in their stores. The iPhone will be 4 years old in June. maybe AT&T's stranglehold is coming to an end.

If you want to see an iPhone ecosystem to Apple's liking you need to look at the UK, where O2 only had exclusivity for 2 years. Within months, every major network and most of the minor ones started to offer the iPhone. Now even the chav (that probably translates best as "trailer-trash") supermarket network of choice, Tesco, sells it. Competition keeps the prices lowish, but not as low as the junk android handsets and Apple sells unlocked iPhones at full price for those of us with cheap SIM-only plans.
 
Competition keeps the prices lowish, but not as low as the junk android handsets and Apple sells unlocked iPhones at full price for those of us with cheap SIM-only plans.

Completely agree, I'm thinking that Apple could single-handedly save Tmo with an iPhone offering just to fuel competition. Android=junk is true, wish I hadn't listened to a few members on here saying how the android system is better for phones. Bought a highly righted android and never the more regretted having got rid of my beloved iP4.
 
god what is it with the US and their billion different frequencies

That is just how we roll.

Its the same in others places, such as Japan, South Korea and China. In fact, the GSM iPhone 4 had an additional band added specifically for Japanese market.
 
This would make a possible model for Videotron and Wind Mobile in Canada and probably give Apple more carrier options in other countries also. It makes sense in a non-US Centric view.

And looking at "carrier acquisitions" here, Rogers acquired Fido ages ago, yet even though the networks worked on the same GSM bands, they still haven't merged. An AT&T purchase of T-mobile would probably take years for a merge to even occur, and a few technology changes. AT&T isn't going to retrofit T-mobile's network and change their frequencies, requiring all the existing customer base to change phones.

So even in a US Centric view, it makes a lot of sense. Basically, don't let an AT&T acquisition of T-mobile trick you into thinking this is a false rumor.

No, it looks like AT&T is going to get ride of T Mobiles 3G so make room for 4G LTE.

Its really not a bad idea....turns the purchase of T Mobile into something more then just one time growth. Also unless everyone followed Nokia with pentaband 3G devices, it would start to become a hassle.

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=7762
 
No, it looks like AT&T is going to get ride of T Mobiles 3G so make room for 4G LTE.

Its really not a bad idea....turns the purchase of T Mobile into something more then just one time growth. Also unless everyone followed Nokia with pentaband 3G devices, it would start to become a hassle.

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=7762

True, long term it is a good plan. Though it looks like since the announcement that new phones becoming available on t-mobile have 850/1900 as well as 1700. Looks like it part of their plan to get devices out to t-mobile users that can work on both networks to be ready for this type of change.

Anyway, regardless of the buy out or not, once exclusivity ended it was only a matter of time before Apple added more bands to the iPhone. The qualcomm chip they use now supports all these bands anyway.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

oops delete please ^^ stupid iphone
 
No, it looks like AT&T is going to get ride of T Mobiles 3G so make room for 4G LTE.

Its really not a bad idea....turns the purchase of T Mobile into something more then just one time growth. Also unless everyone followed Nokia with pentaband 3G devices, it would start to become a hassle.

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=7762

Did you read my comment ? Rogers and Fido, using the same bands, still haven't merged since Rogers' purchase of Microcell. Any plan to "phase out" the 3G bands of T-mobile are not short term as it would require replacing all the current customer bases' phones.

And again, a AWS compatible iPhone makes sense for the short/mid term. Other carriers (Videotron, Wind) in other countries will benefit and it will open up another US carrier to Apple. So people again : Don't let the AT&T/T-mobile merger plans fool you.
 
Bummer

Completely agree, I'm thinking that Apple could single-handedly save Tmo with an iPhone offering just to fuel competition. Android=junk is true, wish I hadn't listened to a few members on here saying how the android system is better for phones. Bought a highly righted android and never the more regretted having got rid of my beloved iP4.

Wow, I can't believe you got talked into an Andriod over iP4, but **** happens. At least you are smart enough and man enough to admit it!:confused:
I look at Andriod as just for people who are just stubborn and for some reason don't like Apple.:cool:

I have had several friends and family members try Android with several different models, trying so hard to believe it was better then iOS iP4, but finally giving in and now love their iP4s! They all have iPads as well!:apple:

I hope you get a another iP4 ASAP!:D
:cool::apple:
 
I was planning to replace my Vibant on Tmobile with a Samsung Galaxy SII, but the iPhone will certainly change my mind.
 
While I don't doubt that Apple are working on an iPhone that works on T-Mobile US's 3G band, is there any actual proof that this phone is connected to the T-Mobile network in the US?

We have a T-Mobile network in the UK, and they use the "normal" 3G frequencies, so any GSM iPhone 4 would work on it.
 
Apple will eventually support every network, and with that lock up the cell market for a generation. Excellent plan: Start with ATT, prefect the phone, roll out perfected versions slowly, get their data center up offering some free cloud-based system, streamlining the app stores, thereby slowly but surely eating the market share of other vendors.
Brilliant.
Prediction: In 5 years only a few will have a fleeting memory of what Android was. Like the Palm Pilot.
 
I have had several friends and family members try Android with several different models, trying so hard to believe it was better then iOS iP4, but finally giving in and now love their iP4s! They all have iPads as well!

A friend in IT was all over his new EVO, saying and trying to show how superior it was to his old iPhone. Within a month or two the EVO was gone, replaced with an iPhone4. Why? He said it was a dead end. While a few things were really nice, it was buggy, there were too few apps, and it was just no fun to use.
Life should be fun, not fraught with glitches and a tool that had no soul.
 
Apple will eventually support every network, and with that lock up the cell market for a generation. Excellent plan: Start with ATT, prefect the phone, roll out perfected versions slowly, get their data center up offering some free cloud-based system, streamlining the app stores, thereby slowly but surely eating the market share of other vendors.
Brilliant.
Prediction: In 5 years only a few will have a fleeting memory of what Android was. Like the Palm Pilot.

I doubt it. If you don't have a US Centric view and look elsewhere, you'll see Android is gaining and passing the iPhone even in markets where both platforms are available on the same carriers. Here, Rogers sells a metric ton of Android devices, Bell pushes them out and Telus too. I see tons of Nexus One and HTC Desires around, tons of Motorola Milestones and even more Captivates.

Yet all these people had a choice of getting an iPhone too. They opted for Android.

So let's not get ahead of ourselves with all the Apple cheerleading and think a move to a new set of frequencies would mean world domination for Apple. It doesn't. But it does open up the option of the iPhone on carriers that support these, which is good for consumers (more carriers = more competition for plans).
 
A friend in IT was all over his new EVO, saying and trying to show how superior it was to his old iPhone. Within a month or two the EVO was gone, replaced with an iPhone4. Why? He said it was a dead end. While a few things were really nice, it was buggy, there were too few apps, and it was just no fun to use.
Life should be fun, not fraught with glitches and a tool that had no soul.

That's what's been happening with a lot of people, they try all the "iPhone killers" and swear by them for a week or so, then all they do is complain and say I wish I got an iPhone! Most of the people I know that went that route are iPhone owners now.:cool::apple:
 
I doubt it. If you don't have a US Centric view and look elsewhere, you'll see Android is gaining and passing the iPhone even in markets where both platforms are available on the same carriers. Here, Rogers sells a metric ton of Android devices, Bell pushes them out and Telus too. I see tons of Nexus One and HTC Desires around, tons of Motorola Milestones and even more Captivates.

Yet all these people had a choice of getting an iPhone too. They opted for Android.

So let's not get ahead of ourselves with all the Apple cheerleading and think a move to a new set of frequencies would mean world domination for Apple. It doesn't. But it does open up the option of the iPhone on carriers that support these, which is good for consumers (more carriers = more competition for plans).

Just curious if you have any numbers to back that up? I honestly have no idea how Android fares up here. It'd be nice if they released numbers (have they?).
 
Just curious if you have any numbers to back that up? I honestly have no idea how Android fares up here. It'd be nice if they released numbers (have they?).

Nope, just going by what I see around the bus/food court areas in downtown Montreal which is more anecdotal than factual. However, looking at world-wide market share numbers, it's not hard to see the trends and outside the US, the iPhone hasn't had "carrier exclusivity" for quite a while.

Thinking that the reason the iPhone "lags" in market share is because of some kind of carrier exclusivity that just got ended 2 months ago is quite the US Centric view.
 
Why?

I thought AT&T's buyout means T-Mobile is going bye-bye?

408 area code, that means cali. is that steve jobs' personal number? :p

They won't. Even if this deal gets approved, T-Mobile will remain a separate company. Everything will remain as it is, except the fact that all revenue will go to AT&T.
 
Nope, just going by what I see around the bus/food court areas in downtown Montreal which is more anecdotal than factual. However, looking at world-wide market share numbers, it's not hard to see the trends and outside the US, the iPhone hasn't had "carrier exclusivity" for quite a while.

Thinking that the reason the iPhone "lags" in market share is because of some kind of carrier exclusivity that just got ended 2 months ago is quite the US Centric view.

In Vancouver (and my group of friends and co-workers) I see at least 5x the amount of iPhones then Android devices. In fact, in my and my girlfriends family alone there are 8 iPhones among 11 people (one of those without an iPhone being my dad who refuses a smartphone at all). However, it's hard to draw any real conclusions up here without any data.

I know that a lot of growth is coming from cheaper markets/countries and in Europe due to the iPhone's higher monthly pricing. I am honestly curious and I wish it was possible to get a country by country breakdown of iOS vs Android.
 
In Vancouver (and my group of friends and co-workers) I see at least 5x the amount of iPhones then Android devices. In fact, in my and my girlfriends family alone there are 8 iPhones among 11 people (one of those without an iPhone being my dad who refuses a smartphone at all). However, it's hard to draw any real conclusions up here without any data.

I tend to ignore my family/co-workers when I talk about this stuff. The Apple bias there is quite evident and I don't expect anything other than Apple stuff there. I wouldn't draw conclusions on Mac market share from them either as it would put the Mac on top of Windows by a huge margin. ;)

I try to be honest with myself because if I looked at them, I would draw the same conclusions you and many others are here and just say Apple is leading by a huge margin, which just isn't the case. I don't have enough attachement to Apple as a vendor to go around cheerleading for them.
 
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