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T-Mobile USA Focused on 'Selling Against the iPhone' Starting September 21

I'm sure it's just an accident that a T-Mobile Ad was appearing exactly lined up with the story's lead on my browser....

...but I'm sure that if they COULD get the iPhone on terms they felt they could live with, the memo would've been about how to sell it, not sell against it. If all you got on your cart to sell is Pizza, you're not exactly gonna be pushing Gyros.....
 
this is why i buy iphones unlocked. so i can have t mobile service.
 
KdParker said:
I think we are getting more that just a stretched iphone, and once again what people like about the iPhone is not just the phone, but the operating system too.
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Whether or not there's a key feature of iPhone 5 that hasn't been made public remains to be seen. But pray tell, which part of iOS 6 do you find particularly innovative?
 
You do know the people that know all this info about phones and technology are a very small hand full, that people do look for the sales rep for advice.
 
who is going to buy a next gen iphone at full price and then bring it to t-mobile for 2g speed? thats bananas.
 
CrAkD said:
who is going to buy a next gen iphone at full price and then bring it to t-mobile for 2g speed? thats bananas.
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It's no different than people who buy $1000+ HDTV's and watch DVD's & SD cable stretched/zoomed.
They are not fully utilizing the TV to its full potential but it's still useful.
 
CrAkD said:
who is going to buy a next gen iphone at full price and then bring it to t-mobile for 2g speed? thats bananas.
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I don't think that's what it's about.

I suspect it's about gunning for people with 4/4S that are coming off-contract and getting them to move over to TMob with their existing phones. Essentially, they're highlighting the true cost of upgrading to the latest and greatest. Like, "you can move your phone over here and buy crap loads of beer while still having a great phone, or you can spend crap loads of money on a new new phone".

The network is supposed to light up HSPA+ (or whatever) sometime this fall, that would take care of the (legitimate) 2G issue.
 
samcraig said:
Depends. Look at the hole Sprint got themselves into for making their deal with Apple...
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Check their Quarterly updates since they got the iPhone, they actually are doing much better.

Sprints problems extend beyond the iPhone, but the deal helped, a lot
 
Is the plan for Apple to withold the iphone until Tmobile almost goes under and then buy them really cheap and make their own "Apple Phone carrier"?

Then they can spend 1-10 billion of their own money to upgrade it and they can be done with the carriers in the US? They'll get every penny...

Poor Tmobile...
 
wkadamsjr said:
Don't AT&T and Verizon employees try to "sell against the iPhone" also so they make better commissions? This could be a memo suggesting they are getting the iPhone, and they want to have employees trained to sell the other phones that make better profits. Especially seeing as how it goes into effect the day the next iPhone is reported to be released.
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I was thinking something along the same lines. The memo doesn't necessarily say they won't be getting the next iPhone. The way I'm reading this is T-Mobile is getting the next iPhone and they know it'll sell fine on it's own, so they want the sales staff to focus on other handsets so they don't lose as many sales on them.
 
Going to be awkward now if they start hawking Samsung phones based on the promise that they are just like the original...
 
Reef555 said:
Is the plan for Apple to withold the iphone until Tmobile almost goes under and then buy them really cheap and make their own "Apple Phone carrier"?

Then they can spend 1-10 billion of their own money to upgrade it and they can be done with the carriers in the US? They'll get every penny...

Poor Tmobile...
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yeah that would be awesome then your phone service could cost 3 times as much and not do anything new. your comment was as dumb as mine
 
faroZ06 said:
If you have an iPhone, you're missing out on the new HTC Surround, a phone that has a whole sliding piece just for speakers (that got poor reviews) and has Zune integration!

And you're missing out on the Droid Bionic, which overloads the Grid with 1GB of RAM!!! Don't use the lame iPhone 4S, which only has 512MB of RAM. You can barely host a Minecraft server on that!
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I'll keep missing out, thanks!
 
alent1234 said:
its only a few markets so far
and T-Mo will have to write apple a huge check for a minimum purchase of millions of iphones
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Yup, Although sprint now has some iphone customers, it hasn't showed a huge jump in profit. it was a big gamble for sprint. lets see how it plays out. i guess tmobile doesn't want to spend a huge amount of money to apple
 
Macclone said:
I don't think it is TMO that doesn't want the iPhone. Apple just doesn't support their frequencies. So, TMO has no choice but to sell android POS phones.
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False. If the new iPhone supports 4G LTE, then it will work on T-Mobile's 3G if not the 4G HSPA+. 4G LTE runs on 1700/2100 MHz, which is what T-Mobile uses for their 4G HSPA+ service. I contacted T-Mobile and they confirmed that any unlocked phone with 4G LTE (like a Verizon Droid) will work on T-Mobile's network under the same frequencies (not EDGE). The 4G LTE technology is pretty much standardized that all 4G LTE phones require SIM cards, and is backwards compatible with HSPA+ (since some providers like AT&T are still using it for their 3G service)
 
Selling Against the New iPhone

Selling against the new iPhone... that might not be too hard.

"Well, sir, you certainly could go to another carrier to get the iPhone - a phone that hasn't really changed much in several years. But take a look at these models. They're slicker and more modern looking... oh, and they have larger screens, faster processors, NFC, they're more customizable and not as fragile. Oh yeah...and they typically cost less."
 
dokujaryu said:
You can't envision a scenario where they train people to sell against the iPhone even tho they sell the iPhone?

Have you ever been to a Verizon store?
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Pretty much, Verizon offers better commissions for non iPhones, because I'd be willing to wager that they make more money off non iPhones.

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flux73 said:
While I would agree that calling it the "most innovative phone" is a bit hyperbolic, the sarcastic responses suggest that they're not innovative at all, which quite frankly is not true. They've singlehandedly created the smartphone market. I don't know of any other phone that has come out with features that I would consider to be truly innovative. A larger screen is not what I consider innovation.
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Apple created the Smart Phone Market? You clearly have NO idea what your talking about. Apple fans seem to think the cellar industry and smart phone didn't exist before 2007...
 
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The diminishing returns of the iPhone doesn't matter anymore. The Galaxy SIII is aqctually better in so many ways. Sure the G1 sucked, but now look where we are.

T-Mobile's problem is they don't have an innovative, push-foward CEO and that's why they fail. With my discount, my bill is ACTUALLY LESS with ATT than it is with TMO. By $50. Why go with Tmomo?
 
damir00 said:
"created" is a little strong.

But only a little.

The smartphone market was minuscule until the iPhone came along.
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Was it smaller? yes of course it was! It was due to the fact that smart phones were VERY expensive, the data plans were also expensive. And Joe 6 pack was to stupid to use one.

The iPhone was easy to use for joe 6 pack, thats what made it so popular. I don't think that makes it a better phone.
 
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