T-Mobile has confirmed to the Wall Street Journal the removal of the Apple iPhone name from the company’s “bring your own device” marketing push. T-Mobile says the reason for the change was a “natural progression,” and that the company had planned only to use the iPhone name for the month of September. T-Mobile says it will switch out the iPhone image for “other AT&T smartphone images” in the future and the program, which will continue to include iPhone demonstrations in-store, is not changing.
According to the T-Mobile spokesperson who spoke with the newspaper, the company didn’t have any “direct communication” with Apple that she was aware of. Apple declined to comment, along with an AT&T spokesperson.
T-Mobile says that “while the language seems strong” in the leaked image we presented yesterday, it was only intended to make sure sales representatives switched out marketing materials on schedule.
What do you think? Did Apple pressure T-Mobile over the name or was it really a “natural progression?”