Apple Bets on the Death of T-Mobile

[MULTIZ321]

Apple Bets on the Death of T-Mobile - by Sascha Segan/PCMag.com


Richard

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Betting on the death of T-Mobile is like taking candy from a baby. And that has nothing to do with the AT&T acquisition. Because it has been evident for years that due to the network technology issues mentioned in the article, T*Mobile has been a walking corpse for years.

The only hope for T*Mobile has been to be acquired by AT&T because AT&T is the only company that has any significant degree of network compatibility. Sprint's goal in opposing the merger is simple - to kill T*Mobile so that T*Mobile customers need to switch to other carriers. Sprint has no interest in acquiring any of T*Mobile's physical assets, and Sprint doesn't have the capital to upgrade them anyway.

*****

Also, relevant to the article, T*Mobile is essentially abandoning the mass market anyway and ceasing to compete with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. They simply can't compete there. Instead they are moving downscale, emphasizing cheap programs, where their competition is outfits like Virgin Mobile and MetroPCS. And if you've seen recent Virgin Mobil ads they've started directly targeting T*Mobile customers. (BTW - Vifgin Mobil is also Sprint.)

 

[fishingguy]

maybe the iPhone should solve world hunger too?

Apple is a private corporation that is owned by shareholders. There is nothing that requires them to save T-Mobile, or even make a phone that will work on T-Mobile's networks. They probably didn't see any opportunity in doing so, if they even considered it.

Apple is in the business of making a profit for shareholders. If they didn't feel like they could sell enough product to offset costs and produce a nice profit for owners, how can they be blamed/faulted/condemned for that decision? The authors case might be a good one for a bailout however -- like the auto makers, banks, alternative energy industry, etc....

JMO (and a stockholder)

 

[tompalm]

Betting on the death of T-Mobile is like taking candy from a baby. And that has nothing to do with the AT&T acquisition. Because it has been evident for years that due to the network technology issues mentioned in the article, T*Mobile has been a walking corpse for years.

The only hope for T*Mobile has been to be acquired by AT&T because AT&T is the only company that has any significant degree of network compatibility. Sprint's goal in opposing the merger is simple - to kill T*Mobile so that T*Mobile customers need to switch to other carriers. Sprint has no interest in acquiring any of T*Mobile's physical assets, and Sprint doesn't have the capital to upgrade them anyway.

*****
You nailed it. I have one more year on my contract with T-Mobile and hope AT&T takes over soon. T-Mobile already cut the cord on customer service.

 

[SDKath]

Wow, what an inappropriate article title considering Steve Jobs just died! Good grief! Kath