Analyst: T-Mobile to Soon Carry iPhone
U.S.'s only large carrier not to offer Apple's smartphone.
According to reports overheard by Merrill Lynch analyst Scott Craig, T-Mobile USA is finally set to offer Apple's iPhone to its subscribers.
Within a note to investors, Craig noted that "speculation is heightening" about T-Mobile USA parent company Deutsche Telecom set to announce plans to sign a deal with Apple in order to bring the iPhone to the U.S. carrier. The unveiling is said to be due for an analyst event next week.
Currently, T-Mobile is the fourth largest carrier in the United States with 33 million customers. Craig said around 4 million from that figure would be expected to purchase the device.
The carrier, the only major U.S. carrier not to offer the iPhone, was scheduled to be purchased through an AT&T merger in 2011 for $39 billion, but it was blocked by U.S. regulators.
To attract consumers without offering the device itself, T-Mobile targets iPhone users by selling nano-SIM cards that can be utilized by unlocked iPhones, subsequently enabling it to be compatible with its network.

Scratch that, the $30 5GB plan kicks ass. I'm on that with an unlocked Galaxy Nexus (might upgrade to a Nexus 4, with no contract to get in my way) and am quite happy.
Good for TMobile not being swayed by the ignorant iDrones. Anything else they spend the money on has got to be better for them in the long run, especially considering the unreasonable nature of Apple's demands.
Exactly what demands does Apple make on the carriers that are unreasonable?
The only ones I know of is that the insist on control of OS distribution and no bloatware from the carrier. Those are not unreasonable, and in fact, consumer friendly. I wish Google and their OEM partners would start making the same demands so while some phones are getting JB, other phones, completely capable of running ICS and JB, are still stuck on GB.
I think Apple should pay for the advertisements saying that the iPhone is available on their network
I agree with you that Google/OEM needs to handle OS releases. But sometimes, having/upgrading/downgrading OS does not always mean good things. Example, got friends with iPhone 4 & 4S with iOS 6, they hated the downgrade and there's no legal way of getting back to iOS 5. Now their phones are slower, got half day battery life and have the lag of death. I guess this is Apple's way of convincing them to upgrade to ifone 5. But guess what, many are coming over to Android.
Recently, my Nexus 7 and Galaxy S3 got upgraded to 4.2.1 and 4.1.1 respectively. Did not notice any major difference, at least not in my usage. OS upgrade are so overhyped.
Also, keep in mind that, there are currently many unlocked ifone running on TMobile with 2g speed, in order for ifone to be compatiable with 3g+, they need to remap a lot of their bands.
Off contract iphones cost a hundred dollars more than other high end phones, such as the SGS3. Apple forces the carriers to eat this difference by requiring that the base iphone model be sold to customers at $199, even though the carrier is paying Apple $100 more than the would for a comparable Android phone. They rape carriers because they can.
Apple also requires carriers to agree in advance to buy tens of millions of phones, whether or not they can sell them. This is why it cost Sprint $15 billion to get the iphone.
So hopefully T-Mobile continues to refuse to waste its money on a single phone, when they could spend it on other devices or on improving their network.
Speaking of which, iPhone on T-Mobile makes no sense right now because they are in the process of building their LTE network for future phones, and switching frequencies used by the current ones, which will actually make unlocked at&t iphones work at full speed on T-Mobile's network anyway. Even if they are going to offer the iphone at some point, it would not make sense for them to do it now.
Example, got friends with iPhone 4 & 4S with iOS 6, they hated the downgrade and there's no legal way of getting back to iOS 5. Now their phones are slower, got half day battery life and have the lag of death.
Smoke dreams?
I have iPhone 4S and iOS6. battery life is the same, speed is the same, direct facebook and twitter integration is great, taking panoramic photos is great, password-less app update is very useful, prompt to authorize app access to calendar/address book made phone more secure.
I don't know anyone who switched from iPhone4/4S to an android. I see people upgrading 4/4s/Androids/BB to iPhone 5s.
Not seeing much difference between the iPhone and the Androids I know of. When our Bionic's got ICS, if someone decided to take the upgrade, it was impossible to go back to GB, they were stuck on ICS and the Razr's were the same way. I suppose if someone went to the greatly increased expense to buy an off contract, unlocked phone (with an unlocked bootloader) they would be able to downgrade, but the fact is, those who do that are the very few.