Sam Oliver
Consumers looking to make the jump to T-Mobile with a new iPhone or iPad now have two new places to turn, as the scrappy carrier announced Thursday that Apple retail stores have begun selling iPhones with prepaid T-Mobile service, plus Costco has picked up a limited range of T-Mobile iPhones and iPads.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere
To sweeten the deal for prepaid customers, those who purchase and activate an iPhone at an Apple Store will receive a $50 discount when they add $50 or $70 worth of service. Those who choose a more traditional postpaid plan can receive an iTunes gift card worth $50.
Costco, meanwhile — to which Apple products recently returned with steep discounts — is now offering both the iPhone and iPad for use on the magenta-themed wireless provider. The discount retailer is stocking T-Mobile variants of the 16-gigabyte iPhone 5s in silver and space gray, the 16-gigabyte iPad mini with Retina display in silver, and the 16-gigabyte iPad Air in space gray.
Consumers purchasing a device at Costco can opt for T-Mobile's monthly installment plan, and the tablets qualify for 200 free megabytes of 4G data each month and an additional 1.2 gigabytes of free data each month through the end of 2014. Purchases can be made both online and in store.
Apple and T-Mobile have seemingly developed a close working relationship in recent months as the carrier beefs up its offerings to aggressively compete with larger rivals Verizon and AT&T. Last week, T-Mobile announced a new "test drive" program in which consumers can receive a free iPhone 5s to test out on the T-Mobile network for one week, and Apple's iTunes Radio is among the streaming services included in the carrier's new "Music Freedom" campaign campaign that excludes streaming music from data caps.
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
14 Comments
Verizon has until September (October; whenever) to lower contract prices for smartphones, otherwise sayonara Verizon, hello same network on Straight Talk.
I'm not really sure why, since I'm not even a T-Mobile customer, but I happened to watch a little bit of that last event that they had. Besides Apple events, I don't really follow any events by other companies.
Anyway, I doubt that other phone companies would ever have an event like T-Mobile's, because the CEO was cursing, using words like F*ck on stage, and I found the whole thing to be hilarious.
I don't like fake Mofos, I like people who tell it like it is, and I like T-Mobile's aggressive steps that they have taken lately. The other big cell companies deserve to be shaken up a bit. Cell plans and data plans are a damn joke in the US. When I travelled in Europe last summer, I got a ton of data, for way less than I would have paid in the USA. That needs to change, and it had damn better change.
Apple is getting pressure from Carriers for lower subsidies. Apple probably likes that T-mobile is a counter weight to this pressure, by showing that plenty of consumers are willing to pay the unsubsidized prices for iPhones. This leaves Apple in a strong position to say to the other Carriers, if you don't like the subsidies, then don't subsidize, but don't come to us looking for concessions.
Verizon has until September (October; whenever) to lower contract prices for smartphones, otherwise sayonara Verizon, hello same network on Straight Talk.
Is that true?
Our house is a ways from a cell tower, and we dropped calls a lot with T-Mobile and ATT, although this was some time ago. Verizon is the only one that could hold a call - can I get Verizon's network w Straight Talk?
Our house is a ways from a cell tower, and we dropped calls a lot with T-Mobile and ATT, although this was some time ago. Verizon is the only one that could hold a call - can I get Verizon's network w Straight Talk?
I've been told that iPhones purchased through ST will be using CDMA, and the network ST contracts for that is Verizon's. I'll probably reconfirm a dozen or so times between then and my date of purchase (both because I can't remember anything and because I want to be certain). Those iPhones will of course be GSM unlocked, so there's that benefit, too.
Do you know that I'll be paying less for an iPhone with unlimited/unlimited/unlimited on Straight Talk than I pay right now for a flip phone with 1000/250/0 on Verizon?
Meaning minutes, messages, and data, respectively. Yeah, I have to buy the thing outright, but if history is any indication I'll be using it for seven years, so there's no worry of a return on "investment".