Why T-Mobile Doesn't Sell the iPhone

T-Mobile customers have been clamoring for the iPhone for over 4 years now.  We understand why T-Mobile didn't have the iPhone for the first 3 1/2 years.  That was due to an exclusive contract made between AT&T and Apple prior to the launch of the first generation iPhone in 2007.  However, that exclusivity ran out sometime around the end of last year/first of this year.  Almost immediately following the end of the exclusivity, Verizon held an event announcing a February launch of the iPhone 4 for Verizon.  6 days ago the iPhone 4S launched and became available on Sprint.  Now that 3 of the 4 big US Mobile carriers offer the iPhone, T-Mobile users are left asking the question, "Why not us?"

A few weeks ago, T-Mobile's Cole Broadman, sent a letter out to customers.  He said, "We’ve heard from many customers who love their T-Mobile service, but are disappointed that we don’t carry the iPhone. To these customers, first, thank you for your business.  Please know that we think the iPhone is a great device and Apple knows that we’d like to add it to our line-up. Today, there are over a million T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones on our network. We are interested in offering all of our customers a no-compromise iPhone experience on our network." So if T-Mobile wants to sell the iPhone, why would Apple not want to have a partnership with T-Mobile?  I truly don't think that Apple doesn't want T-Mobile to have the iPhone, it must have simply come down to contract negotiations.  Prior to the iPhone 4S launch, rumors asserted that Sprint paid a lot of money to get the iPhone 4S.  This may or may not be true but it's possible that T-Mobile may not have been willing to meet Apple's pricing terms or it may be holding out with hopes that the merger with AT&T will still occur.  With the Justice Department doing all they can to stop the merger, the likelihood is looking more bleak, but time will tell.  

Whether the issue is technical or contractual, we don't know with certainty.  However, if you are on T-Mobile, out of contract, and still not getting an iPhone, it shows that you really don't care to have an iPhone (or at least one that isn't jailbroken and unlocked, running on Edge speeds).  T-Mobile's network, pricing, and customer service may all be positives but none of those outweigh the benefit of owning an iPhone on a supported network.  I switched from T-Mobile to AT&T in 2008 in order to get the iPhone 3G and haven't regretted the decision once.  In my opinion, the device is more important than the carrier.  What's better, with the 3 largest US carriers offering the iPhone, you can now have the best of both worlds: a terrific phone and a terrific carrier.