It’s October 4^th and we all know what that means, iPhone Day!  Well, I’m sure you have heard already but T-Mobile will NOT be receiving an iPhone this year.  Big win for the Android faithful, but what does this mean for the carrier on a whole?

 It’s a quick opinion, but let’s see what we can figure out here.  Apple is one of the only major stakeholders that have not voiced their opinion on the merger, but they have definitely showed their cards with this move.  Not allowing an iPhone on the 4^th major carrier effectively shows that they don’t think it is worth it.  It is not worth the small cost to them, even if they will be receiving increased revenue.

More so, they are even showing that they don’t have faith in T-Mobile, and especially with their future.  They believe that AT&T is going to swallow them whole, and maybe it will be better for them that way.  The new iPhone is even a world phone, compatible with AT&T, Verizon and SPRINT, and they still don’t want to include T-Mobile in the fun.  Maybe they are waiting for T-Mobile to be swallowed whole, allowing them to make the real iPhone 5 4G capable on the three main players.  They would need to make a different device for each carrier, but that’s not entirely surprising and is surely within the next evolution of the phone we love to hate, or hate to love depending on your standpoint (for you, probably the former).

The worst part is that this isn’t even the upgrade that everyone was banking on.  It is the same old iPhone, just faster.  Sure, there are other good things with the upgrade, but nothing like the upgrades you see with Android phones.  This evolution of the iPhone took over a year to upgrade, and they only accomplished what Android phone manufacturers have done in 6 months.  The simple fact is, and back to the main point, that people will still flock to buy this phone, because of it being “magical.”  It’s great branding, and something that Android phones miss the mark on, but being the only major carrier without ‘magic’ kind of pushes you aside.

Let’s turn this around though.  Maybe this wasn’t Apple.  Apple could have gone to T-Mobile and been like, “we want the iPhone on all major carriers so we can dominate the market.”  Chances are, that didn’t happen (they will still dominate the market, just without T-Mobile).  So, T-Mobile didn’t put the effort in.  They didn’t express the interest (read: money) to get the iPhone on their network.  This is a huge misstep.

Yes, Android is great, and I love that T-Mobile is standing behind the OS that they helped expand, but simply ‘talking’ to clients against the iPhone won’t cut it.  People will leave, and less people will be adopting Android, as well as WP7 and Blackberry for that matter.  It’s a shame, but the sheer demand for iPhones is going to explode this holiday season, and there isn’t much standing in their way.

Simply putting the iPhone on T-Mobile may not be able to save them, there is no way of knowing, but not getting it is the worst mistake that T-Mobile could make.  They know the demand, they know how many people love it and use Edge just to have it on T-Mobile, and they know that people will leave for it.  They are allowing this to happen, bowing down, throwing in the towel, giving up.  The fact that T-Mobile is now the only major carrier without an iPhone is the biggest argument FOR the merger, and it is a significant one.  It will be very difficult for T-Mobile to compete now, and maybe that is exactly how they want it.