Deutsche Telekom announces T-Mobile to begin selling Apple products in 2013
Just a couple weeks after T-Mobile COO Jim Alling told investors that carrying Apple’s incredibly popular iPhone wasn’t worth the risks involved, T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom has announced that, beginning in 2013, the US-based GSM carrier will indeed begin to sell Apple products.
Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann told the news to analysts today at the company’s analyst day event, wherein he showed off the company’s financial plans through 2015. 2013 marks the first time that T-Mobile and Apple will work together to sell iDevices to customers – though we currently don’t know which iDevices will be sold through T-Mobile. I predict that the entire line of LTE-equipped iPhones and iPads will be on offer, as T-Mobile is set to launch its LTE network the same year.
After Engadget posted about the news, both Deutsche Telekom and Apple responded to and confirmed it. The former company sent out a press statement, while the latter sent out its own confirmation to The Loop.
Both companies stressed that Apple products that are compatible with T-Mobile’s network will be sold next year, and that T-Mobile is working hard to restructure itself, its market presence, and its network to provide the best experience for users of Apple devices.
Despite its earlier comments, T-Mobile has got to be incredibly excited right now. The ability to finally offer what a large portion of consumers consider to be the best smartphone will certainly help the carrier achieve much greater success than before. And, combined with the news that T-Mobile and MetroPCS are merging, there should be very few problems with the added stress that iPhone users are bound to bring.
It’s simply going to offer the United States consumer yet another choice – which ultimately drives innovation to bring us a better future.
[Engadget via Mac Rumors | The Loop]
