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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.
I don't see any data presented in the article. The claim is made that smartphone users are leaving in droves. So, where is the chart of smartphone market share per carrier?
I switched TO T-mobile to use a smartphone, since neither Verizon nor ATT had decent options (2.5 years ago). If you want an iPhone then you're going to ditch T-Mobile, but the last time I checked most smartphone users don't use iPhones.
And the last time I checked I had 4G service just about everywhere I actually go with T-Mobile, which includes a moderate amount of travel. If you like to go fishing in the mountains then you'll do better with a different carrier, but if you actually spend your time where the population density is greater than 3/km^2 you'll almost certainly have 2G with T-Mobile, and most likely you'll have 4G as well.
Who cares what the market needs? The market skews the value of individuals by personal wealth.
I care about what people need.
I left T-Mobile because their network didn't cover all the areas I needed cell reception in. That's it. T-Mobile's network in the Pacific Northwest is better than Sprint's, but when you get away from the interstates (especially east of the Cascades) there are huge gaps.
Now, when I originally left Verizon and switched to T-Mobile... that was because Verizon was evil. Verizon had coverage everywhere, but their fundamental evil-tude overrode that.
#DeleteChrome
Even the most arch-capitalist of pre-welfare-state Western thinkers a century ago would have laughed at the idea that you could sell radio frequencies to private groups. "I get exclusive right to send waves of THIS length."
They'd also laugh at the idea of intellectual property as opposed to temporary copy right.
What exactly is our current regime, anyway?
"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.
What are talking about?
Not competing on contract length, or better yet ditching contracts altogether.
T-Mobile does have contract-free plans, and are the only major carrier to do so.
Not competing on price with the big 3, and following Boost's lead.
T-Mobiles with contract prices are significantly cheaper than AT&T and Verizon, and their contract-free plans are even cheaper than that.
Not updating existing Android phones to newer builds in a timely fashion.
I agree with you there. They took the lead with the G1, and but since then all the flagship Android phones have gone to other carriers.
I don't know of a single person who is leaving them, and know a couple that have gotten sick of Verizon's prices and are moving to T-Mobile. Boost et al have such shitty coverage around here I might as well carry a walkie-talkie.
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.
T-Mobile does not have terrible cellular. That is a myth that anyone on T-Mobile can verify.
I agree ... I've been on them for about three years now, and where I live I've had no problems whatsoever. I've had AT&T, U.S. Cellular and Sprint, and I've had the best coverage on T-Mobile. Period. And actually manage to pull in about 10 mbits/sec on my data channel, so I'm a happy camper. And the GP's talk of "incompetence"? Where did he get that from? I experienced an incredible degree of incompetence dealing with AT&T and Sprint: billing error after billing error to the point that I switched to T-Mobile. If nothing else, the Germans know how to run an accounting system.
On top of that, for the $25 I'm spending each month on 3G/4G, I get unlimited data and voice roaming. So I can go anywhere in the U.S. and not worry about coverage. Drove cross-country last year through a dozen states, and had data, voice, tethering and Google Nav all the way, and I lost track of how many different networks I went through.
AT&T and Verizon can take their pretty little floating colored maps and stick them where the Sun don't shine. This merger is certainly not in my best interests, I'll tell you that. All this talk about "savings" and "scaleability" and "service" is a smoke screen. AT&T doesn't do anything like this to benefit the consumer. They do it to benefit AT&T, and that letter that got accidentally posted to the FCC's Web site last month made that pretty damn clear. AT&T can go to hell in a handbasket so far as I'm concerned.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Duh, figures on Wikipedia seem to suggest otherwise:
92.1m(June 2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_mobile_network_operators_of_the_Americas&diff=379881459&oldid=379828763#United_States
93.2m (September 2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_mobile_network_operators_of_the_Americas&diff=405757817&oldid=404703849#United_States
In GSM-only markets, like Australia and parts of Europe, where all carriers had the iPhone at the same time, Android Phone market share is only marginally better than Android Tablet market share.
Speaking from a GSM-only market (Finland), I don't see this at all, and your rant looks like fiction. Android phones greatly outnumber Apple's iPhones in public places such as shopping malls and airports, and in corporate environments. Hint: most corporations here don't provide iPhone or Android phones, people must buy their own and stick the company SIM card in it unless they're happy with the corporate-issue Nokia crap; they seem to be choosing Android by a substantial margin.
The increases in Android sales coincided with supply issues of iPhones. People would only buy Android phones when they couldn't get and iPhone and *needed* a phone now.
Do you have any data to back up this fascinating conjecture, which looks like baseless wild speculation from here. I don't know anyone who has an iPhone. I know many people who have Android phones.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
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.
I use a T-Mobile MyTough 4g which I purchased outright from T-Mobile & then flashed with Cyanogenmod. I pay $60/month for unlimited talk, text & data with a 2gb soft cap. If I go over 2gb I'm shifted to edge speed for the rest of the billing cycle. I'm not shut off or charged extra.
The T-mobile network lets me do everything I want my phone to do everywhere I go. I've never had a complaint about coverage, data speeds, or anything else.
When ATT, Sprint, or any other carrier can match that deal, I'll consider switching.
It's hard for me to leave anymore comments here under my name, everything is moderated down as a 'troll', people don't like the message, so they think I am trolling them, so there is a limit on number of comments I can leave and I do need to call it a night, it is night where I am.
However you are missing the forest for the trees. As government is providing any specific company or a number of companies in any specific industry with money and promises these companies that it will bring in customers via regulations and such, it is creating a monopoly or maybe an oligopoly, but what is hilarious about this case is that this company, with HALF A BILLION dollars of credit from US gov't and promise of customers has failed anyway.
I find it to be extremely hilarious and telling. Of-course in reality the gov't isn't interested in this alternative energy at all, OIL is where all the action is - that's the stuff that gets most gov't money, with wars, liability caps for deep water drilling, etc.etc.
You can't handle the truth.
You are a fanboy.
Can we just drop the Hate Labels and talk reasonably here? You did a good job of that otherwise.
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
Yes he was. By saying there was "no difference" between the Android and iPhone today, he is saying that ANYONE could use either with no consequence.
But that simply is not true for everyone. That is sort of true for technical users, although even there I would say there is a clear difference as some people obviously prefer the greater customizability of Android out of the box.
But for non-technical users, you do people who would not even know what a "task manager" was a disservice by steering them to a device that really requires more technical understanding to get the most of or use without issues.
claims that one is intrinsically superior to the other are fundamentally ridiculous.
Note carefully that I have NEVER claimed overall superiority of the iPhone. What I claim is that for SOME users it is the better choice. As is Android for others. Is that really wrong, to note that in fact some users are better served by one device or software over another? Are we as a people so lost in the deep realms of PC bullshit that we cannot even say one device is better at a specific task than another?
Generally speaking, when the founder of a successful organization dies or retires, his creation loses focus.
Lucky for Apple then Jobs has done neither.
Jobs' vision drove Apple to where it is and it remains to be seen if the company can flourish without it.
Something to look at carefully in about five years, but Apple has a long pipeline, and a lot of people in place hand-picked and trained by Jobs to think like him, along with a whole company of engineers who agree with his thought process pretty strongly at this point. I am pretty sure he has come as close as is possible to creating a self-correcting organization at this point that cannot get too far off the line he would have taken...
Not to mention Ive still works there, and he's really the one that is responsible for most modern Apple devices' immediate visceral appeal on holding it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
your claim about security don't hold very well, now if you want to talk about the perceived security, the iPhone wins....
Is it only perception that Android has had many more viruses and trojans than has the iPhone? Nope.
If it's possible for non-technical users to be Phished to a web site where they can download "free angry birds" then your platform is less secure, period.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When market needs choices, market provides choices.
Problem is that what market needs is often not what the people need.
It's just like that libertarian chimera of "efficient markets" - sure they are efficient, but for whom? the people who walk away with your money in their pockets, not for you.
Being from Germany originally, I have liked always liked TMo in the US - friendly customer service, GSM technology (important if you travel overseas a lot), very good coverage (only in Puerto Rico I drew a blank so far) and the fact that they allow you to unlock the phone after a very short time (basically after you paid 3 bills or so). I have always been able to plug in my German pre-paid card and avoid overseas roaming charges. In addition, TMo is one of the few carriers to still offer an unlimited data plan, which came in really handy when Hurricane Irene took out my regular network for days.
But the selection of phones they offered in the past (before the iPhone - I don't really care about that) were clearly putting many folks off. They got the Razr at a time when people already dumped them on EBay, and only recently they got themselves a real winner with the Galaxy S/Vibrant. I always had a hard time defending our family plan with my kids with the "totally uncool" phones, and ended up buying unlocked phones on the free market a few times. I once found myself next to a T-Mo corporate woman on a flight and told her that. She was really surprised and recited the list of phones she thought were really great - almost the same selection that I knew to be the list of Phones Never To Be Caught With. It continued with the Android 1.5 phones that were offered forever, the Blackberries, and others which appeared to be selected for their total absence of any kind of must-have appeal.