T-Mobile USA 'Not Going to Get the iPhone 5 This Year'

[heisetax]

Possible Meanings

Is this a move by T-Mobile to basically say that they need to be purchased as they will not have the iPhone for their customers unless they are purchased by AT&T?

 

[SeaFox]

Really wish it was coming to T-Mobile. I'll be purchasing my first smartphone this fall, but I refuse to switch to AT&T or Verizon.

Given the uncertainty that AT&T may be purchasing T-Mobile, if you wish to avoid AT&T the last thing you should be doing is thinking of buying a new phone this Fall and getting locked into a 2-year contract extension.

If you're out of contract now, don't do anything. Wait to find out what's going to happen to T-Mobile so if the deal goes through you'll be free to easily escape.


Edit:

Is this a move by T-Mobile to basically say that they need to be purchased as they will not have the iPhone for their customers unless they are purchased by AT&T?

Considering T-Mobile (or should I say, T-Mobile's owners) want to sell to AT&T as much as AT&T wants to buy them, I also interpreted it this way. A subtle way of trying to turn T-Mobile customers in favor of this acquisition (since at this point few of them are and that's what's causing these government lawsuits).

 

[Tiggs]

Too bad but there's always next year

 

[Captainobvvious]

I'm just going to say it again... You people are insane...

I can't believe you guys are looking so deeply into this comment that you think he is saying that the phone coming out this year is a 4S and not a 5 or that the next gen iPhone isn't coming out this year...

Madness...

It is an internal letter and not a cold war coded message.

He means ONE thing and that's that T-Mobile isn't getting the iPhone this year.

 

[andiwm2003]

Then you've got to do the same with ATT. Compare apples to apples, or so to speak. TMO unlimited voice + text & 2GB of data is $140/month for 2 smart phones in the family plan. ATT is $170/month. And I'm not sure if that includes unlimited texting on ATT!

On TMO unsubsidized family plan 2 smart phones with data, unlimited voice + text is $100/month. TMO USA is considerably cheaper and their network is quite good in the major markets in the US.

For an individual smart phone TMO is $80/month and ATT is $100/month.

For me personally, my wife would like an iPhone since she would have access to her iTunes music on her iMac, but there is no way in hell I'm going to switch over to ATT.

you are making the wrong comparison. two smartphones are useless to me. unlimited text is just plain stupid. the relevant parameters for me are:

around 500 min per month,
around 200 text per month,
1 smart phone
international calling plan (equal or better than 9 cents/min)
better than 1 GB data per month

in that case the price difference is as you said something about $10-20. At that price difference most customers choose more becuase of coverage, plan details, convenience and not because of price.

I really see no advantage for TMO to have the iPhone because they will not get more customers. The only niche they can get is their very good family plans. However I doubt that they can afford those family plans for long when 2 million people want them for their iPhones. So even if they get the iPhone they will not offer the $49 family plan for it (my guess). I wish TMO would get the iPhone with a cheap plan. I'd switch in a heartbeat. But not for $90. For $60 yes.

 

[gnomeisland]

Sprint and T-Mobile alike are vying for a second place, which in the U.S. today means the same as survival. If Sprint is given the iPhone 5, it will launch Sprint WAYYYY ahead of T-Mobile in terms of survivability. That, plus another year of no iPhone for T-Mobile, likely means the end of T-Mobile.

This is a little conspiracy theory of me but I wonder if AT&T isn't working with Apple to block T-Mobile getting the iPhone precisely because it could help turn things around for T-Mobile. Because of the merger the phone is almost certain to work on T-Mobile's frequencies and likely would offer a better experience for less money than getting it on AT&T.

As a T-Mobile customer and former AT&T and Verizon customer I really hope the merger does not work out. AT&T doesn't need the infrastructure it needs the GSM dominance so it can bleed the market dry delivering bad service for a higher price.

 

[sorepheet]

meh

I have been a T-mobile customer since 2003. That will change this October when the new iPhone comes out and I will be replacing a very old BlackBerry Pearl. Sorry T-mobile, I've waited long enough.

I've had an iPhone on T-Mobile since March '08. EDGE just ISN't cutting it anymore... I really don't wanna jump ship but if doesn't support T-Mobile's 3G bands, it may be time.

 

[gnomeisland]

Then, I'm taking my business somewhere else.. Hope there is someone to turn off the lights when you go belly up.

And that's exactly who AT&T hopes to be and what they hope to do by keeping the iPhone off of T-Mobile (at least for the initial big sign up wave).

 

[vikingjunior]

It gets even worst best buy to stop selling T mobile.

 

[devinci99]

Note: "We are not going to get the iPhone 5 this year,"

Interesting. I wonder if he meant, WE=T-Mobile
or WE as in everyone. That could be a hint that he knows iphone 5 isn't coming out this year.

It would align with the recent speculation that Apple isn't releasing an "iphone 5" this year and their next generation iphone would be call iphone 4S.


Who knows. You can read that sentence in a lot of different ways.

 

[Quad 2.5 G5 =)]

As long as the new iPhone supports AWS 3G/4G Bands....I'll be happy. If not....I'll go ahead and get a iPhone 4, and use it on T-Mobile's network...no use getting the new one if it doesn't work on their 3G/4G network..

 

[gkarris]

It gets even worst best buy to stop selling T mobile.

T-Mobile really wants to sell to AT&T, so why should Best Buy bother?

 

[macinnv]

As long as the new iPhone supports AWS 3G/4G Bands....I'll be happy. If not....I'll go ahead and get a iPhone 4, and use it on T-Mobile's network...no use getting the new one if it doesn't work on their 3G/4G network..

Previous iPhones haven't supported AWS bands, I doubt iPhone 5 will.

 

[panzer06]

snip

For me personally, my wife would like an iPhone since she would have access to her iTunes music on her iMac, but there is no way in hell I'm going to switch over to ATT.

I agree T-Mobile is much less expensive and their customer support has been outstanding.

Also, your wife can use iSyncr and the Wifi add-on to wirelessly sync playlist to Android phones. I use it all the time. It costs a few bucks and take a minute or two to setup but once it's done you buy Amazon music and wirelessly sync back to the mac from the phone as well.

Cheers,

 

[Quad 2.5 G5 =)]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

As long as the new iPhone supports AWS 3G/4G Bands....I'll be happy. If not....I'll go ahead and get a iPhone 4, and use it on T-Mobile's network...no use getting the new one if it doesn't work on their 3G/4G network..

Previous iPhones haven't supported AWS bands, I doubt iPhone 5 will.

All it would require is a new chipset supporting it. I don't think it would be too big of a deal to have it...besides, if T-Mobile gets on the iPhone later...they'll need that chipset.

 

[Wicked1]

Say Bye Bye T-Mobile, they will not survive with sub par service, lack luster phones, and with the big three having the iPhone and them not having it. I see there time in the US as limited if they do not merge with someone, and get the iPhone within 6 months.