“T-Mobile USA has lost customers because it does not carry Apple’s iPhone, but the company is not willing to make major sacrifices to add the device to its portfolio, said a T-Mobile executive,” Tammy Parker reports for FierceBroadbandWireless.
“‘Make no mistake about it: We would love to carry the iPhone. However, we want the economies to be right for us,” said Jim Alling, COO of T-Mobile USA. He made his comments during a wide-ranging discussion that featured executives from T-Mobile and MetroPCS during the Morgan Stanley 12th Annual Technology, Media & Telecoms Conference in Barcelona, Spain,” Parker reports. “”
Parker reports, “Alling acknowledged that not carrying the iPhone has been detrimental to T-Mobile, saying, ‘We recognize that it has been a point of churn for us.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s no hope for too cheap and/or too stupid. Everyone knows that only inferior carriers don’t have iPhones, only iPhone knockoffs.
[Attribution: Cult of Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
T-Mobile USA expands HSPA+ network in direct bid for iPhone customers – November 7, 2012
T-Mobile USA focused on ‘selling against the iPhone’ starting September 21st – August 28, 2012
Apple iPhone have-nots: T-Mobile USA customer losses continue to mount – May 10, 2012
Wow, T-M doesn’t want to compete. I left them along with my wife and two kids just because of the iPhone. Just saying another telco is getting $297 per month instead of T-M. That guy must be a hell of a good COO,
Haha, to funny. I at first read your statement that you left T-M AND you wife and kids for the iPhone, although in reality that probably isn’t the case.
good one.
silverhawk1 may not be very good at writing but at least he is an Apple fan and maybe even loves his wife and kids in retrospect.
Or perhaps he loves them in circumspect or even concurrently with his passion for his Apple gear. But not in retrospect.
Way to go Apple, now it’s blood on the marriage license. You bastards!
iPhone5 destroys marriages as well as maps!
Doomed!!!
Who needs customers anyway ?
Agreed…they just demand services and things we can’t (won’t) provide.:)
But.. they carry Android phones.. isn’t that enough? google phones have more market share, Google, didn’t you said you have more market share than iPhone? why carriers don’t want you? why Verizon bring the iPhone onboard if they were selling Androids? Why T-mobile wants the iPhone?
OK, enough, to all FANDROIDS, listen carefully MARKET SHARE MEANS NOTHING IF YOU DON’T MAKE A PROFIT.
Amen!!!
Why should consumers care about profits for AAPL? All they want is an inexpensive device that is nearly as good as an iPhone and has nearly the same ecosystem as Apple does. To them, it is good enough if it does many of the same things.
And, now that Google is reported to be considering its own wireless network I wonder how good these guys feel about heavily promoting android phones????
Well if the iPhone works on T-Mo’s HSPA+ network and seems fast enough for the basics, web, e-mail, some apps, is fine by me if they provide savings by way of lower pre-paid plans for those bringing their unlocked iPhones over to them.
Still debating as a T-Mobile client, to stay or try elsewhere later next year… Waited since 2007… My current phone is old and I’m not under contract although plan is pretty cheap. But I long to be a part of the iPhone clique… Heaven knows I have enough iPhone apps just waiting in the wings…
T-Mo’s network for 3G has not traditionally been the right technology/frequency for the iPhone. http://www.airportal.de has a map of the new towers that are iPhone compatible.
We know, from AT&T’s iPhone success that the iPhone model works, at least when you have a monopoly… Verizon, too, seems to be making money with the Apple phone. T-Mobile may have a different set of problems – perhaps their network doesn’t have the capacity to support the net-sogging Apple users, and perhaps they don’t have the cash to bring it up to the mark. But this sounds like an admission of terminal cancer, and TM will continue to bleed customers as iPhone grows market share. Such is life in the jungle of competitive business…
Some companies are still in business offering dial up Internet. It’s not about how many customers you have, it’s about how much money you make relative to your expenses.
Penny wise and pound (dollar) foolish.
YAWN.
I guess the price stunt doubles ridding motorcycles down the street cost more than I thought.
In other news:
Big Joe’s Carz Emporium admits it has lost customers because it does not carry Porsche’s Carrera 4S, but the company is not willing to make major sacrifices to add the vehicle to its portfolio.
“Make no mistake about it: We would love to carry the Carrera 4S. However, we want the economies to be right for us,” said Big Joe.
Funny how carriers who offer the expensive iPhone are making record profits…
I dumped T-Mobile for my AT&T iPhone 5. If there had been a T-Mobile signal at my new apartment I might have been… NAH… Had to finally get an iPhone! Adios T-Mobile.
They should at least carry the iPhone 4…a subsidy may cost less then the 5…
what is the aTT and Verizon strategy?
it’s:
carry the iPhone but PUSH android, Windows Phones etc.
If a customer comes in sales guys are trained to tell them how much more wonderful (piece of crap) android and Win phones are. (Android etc phones from which they make more money ). AT&T boss even carries a Windows Phone as his primary phone and shows it off at every opportunity during TV interviews etc.
ONLY sell iPhones to DETERMINED iPhone customers i.e those who throw a tantrum “I want an iPhone, iPhone, iPhone… !!!”.
in this way AT&T and Verizon figured they would stop ‘churn’ from people just wanting the iPhone but still try to max profits (by selling ignorant customers android crap)
Unfortunately (as the T mobile boss realized looking at the reports) even with this ‘Push anything else but iPhone’ strategy, the bulk of their smartphone sales are still from apple. Over 50% of AT&T’s smartphone sales are iPhones…
T mob boss: if you don’t carry iPhone you will die slowly…
He doesn’t get that what he thinks is “churn” is actually “drain”. Yet another American executive being compensated far above his actual level of competence.
He used the word “Synergies” so that alone tells me he is a brain dead MBA with no vision.
WTF is a “point of churn”? Maybe they meant a pint of chum.
Business way of saying losing customers.
IF T-Mumle won’t spend the money or the time to listen to the CUSTOMER, then T-Mumble will be a second or third tier provider until they perish. The COO needs to be dropped off a building in Seattle and replaced by someone who actually understands what a customer is !!!
Buh-bye!…
Curently, T-Mobile has by far the least expensive prepaid smartphone plans. Unlimited everything starts at $50 per month (throttled) and goes up to $70 (generous allowance). Their low-cost VMNO, SimpleTalk goes even lower, starting at $40 per month unlimited everything (throttled after 250MB), or $50 (no throttling at all!). You bring your own SIM-compatible device (iPhone 5 works with their 4G).
These guys are frugal and they simply don’t want to go for the top end of the market. Many iPhone owners actually use unlocked devices and T-Mobile cards. Now that the iPhone is truly LTE-compatible, the numbers can even go up further.
Paying Verizon or AT&T for their absurd nickle-and-diming just because they officially carry the iPhone is worse than laughing at T-Mobile for not offering the iPhone.
+1 for Predrag
admittedly it is confusing why T-Mobile has avoided becoming a seller of the iPhone, but the badmouthing here of a a mobile telecom that offers unlocked iPhone owners by far the best value in North America is completely tasteless.
It would seem the peanut gallery at MDN prefers doing business with the mob bosses running ATT or Verizon or Sprint. Do please explain why, tough guys.
My iphone has been on T-Mobile since I bought it. Only financial idiots pay the other carriers hundreds more a year for the same service. Bet the are the ones going to check cashing places too. Lol
i agree. my wife and i have iPhones and its 100$ a month for unlimited data, etc. im looking forwards to expanded 1900MHz coverage…
“MacDailyNews Take: There’s no hope for too cheap and/or too stupid. Everyone knows that only inferior carriers don’t have iPhones, only iPhone knockoffs.”
MDN and other members, I guess from your elitist perch you “in crowd” are unable to see all the little people. Not all can afford to pay $200 and a monthly service of $80-90 for an iPhone or want too.
No need to condemn those who can’t nor the carrier that also can’t justify an iPhone just to feel better about yourself. I guess some of you would prefer that we only had one or two large telecoms. But if you have an iPhone you certainly can use it on T-Mobile.
How can they afford to not have the iPhone?
Poor saps can’t even see what’s right in front of them