Slashdot Mirror
The iPhone's Role In Crippling T-Mobile
GMGruman writes "The feds may be blocking AT&T's buyout of T-Mobile, but T-Mobile is in poor shape to continue as is. Parent company Deutsche Telekom's decision not to invest in U.S. spectrum a decade ago constrained T-Mobile's ability to grow, especially through 4G networks now finally emerging. But from a customer point of view, it was the iPhone that has threatened the company the most. Or, more precisely, its lack of the iPhone."
Are you kidding? Unless you are paid by Apple or a Zombie, can do you really believe and iPhone is any better and a T-Mobile G2 or any high end Android handset?
Really? Want some Apple flavored Kool Aid?
* Carthago Delenda Est *
The iPhone has 5% of the mobile market. T-Mobile is not failing because they don't have a slice of that 5%. That did not cripple them in any way. Lack of investment in coverage area hurt them, but not having the iPhone is insignificant next to that.
It sucks they're declining, because they were the only company that you could ever pay off a subsidized phone - at the end of your 2 year contract, your rate went down unless you got a new phone. It should be illegal to keep charging you for the phone once it's paid off, but that's what all the other companies do.
Who cares what the market needs? The market skews the value of individuals by personal wealth.
I care about what people need.
"Why is it that Apple fans have to make everything about the iPhone?"
It really is sad. Apple fans were never like this years ago. I know I certainly wasn't. Yes there was fanboyism. But somehow Apple's move into the cellphone market turned Apple fans into foaming at the mouth batshit insane cultists.
One just has to see what has become of major Apple sites like AppleInsider:
* Apple invented EVERYTHING
* Anything not made by Apple SUCKS
* Anything not made by Apple would be AMAZING if Apple did it
* 'Teh OMG!!! iPhone' caused or is responsible for X. Where X is basically EVERYTHING. Wars, famines, stock market swings, celebrity breakups, medical breakthroughs.
Fanboi rant Are you kidding? Unless you are paid by Apple or a Zombie, can do you really believe and iPhone is any better and a T-Mobile G2 or any high end Android handset?
Although I dislike using the term "fanboi" in any context, I cannot help but note how ironic it is that you disparage iPhone users by using that term, when you yourself seem to be blindly pushing Android even to people who would be better served by using an iPhone. There is a real difference in security and ease of use.
You are a fanboi. He wasn't pushing anything: he was making a valid point that the market today is not like it was when the iPhone was first introduced. From a functional perspective, Android products are generally equivalent in capability to the iPhone, and are actually ahead of the game in others. They're often a better value as well, although I've never found an iPhone user to understand that concept when applied to smartphones.
... and falls from the top spot. We'll see. Jobs' vision drove Apple to where it is and it remains to be seen if the company can flourish without it.
There may or may not be a "real" difference anymore (many people prefer Android for one reason or another, hey, no accounting for taste) so claims that one is intrinsically superior to the other are fundamentally ridiculous. Face facts: smartphone tech is maturing, rapidly, and the iPhone is no longer the unquestioned leader in that market. Certainly it isn't in terms of unit sales. And that is to be expected and is entirely proper: nobody (and I mean nobody) remains market leader forever. That's just the way it works.
Put it this way: there's a reason that Apple broke into the tablet market, even though they were hardly the originators of that technology either. It's because they knew very well that their lead in the cellular market would eventually be lost, and it has been. No different than Microsoft casting desperately about to find something, anything with which they can make money outside of Windows and Office. Well, it is different in that Microsoft has continually failed at that whereas Apple has had some spectacular successes. But it's the same idea, and I give Apple credit for pulling it off again.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether their new leadership can continue Jobs' tradition of learning from his own failures and coming up with something that people just absolutely must have. Generally speaking, when the founder of a successful organization dies or retires, his creation loses focus, becomes excessively conservative and risk-averse
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
The protection of radio spectrum goes both ways, though. I'm a pretty fucking big fan of the idea that there's nobody else on the frequency my ambulance squad uses to communicate with our dispatcher and the police, or the paramedics, or other agencies. And that's only because the FCC has a very big stick to hit people with if they violate it. If people or businesses thought they could get away with co-opting public safety frequencies, you bet your ass they would.
And you don't have to think very hard to come up with countless other problems with an unregulated spectrum. Everything from cordless phones to RC cars to WiFi would become useless as people just shat all over the spectrum because it was easy and convenient to do so. Things like allocation and emissions regulations keep the spectrum useful in the same way that a drivers' license keeps the roads useful to everybody. Even the most anarchist person must recognize the tragedy of the commons, even if he doesn't like the solution - at least if he's intellectually honest.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
You are a fanboi. He wasn't pushing anything: he was making a valid point that the market today is not like it was when the iPhone was first introduced.
Um...
"Are you kidding? Unless you are paid by Apple or a Zombie, can do you really believe and iPhone is any better and a T-Mobile G2 or any high end Android handset?"
Pretty much using a term like "fanboi" increases the odds dramatically that you, yourself, are being a "fanboi". It's a stupid term that simply means "you don't like what I like, therefore you're an idiot".
The iPhone had a significant impact on T-Mobile. It's difficult to see how it couldn't, and it still does. In spite of all the Apple hatred around here, Apple has sold over 100 million iPhones, and sells tens of millions every quarter. In other words, people want iPhones. Not having the iPhone has caused problems for T-Mobile. It's nice that they have Android phones, and that people want those, but T-Mobile is automatically locked out of a large portion of the consumer market.