T-mobile - why such a crap phone assortment?
 

Why does T-mobile have such a limited assortment of handhelds?

ATTWS with all it's problems has several times more, and carries some of the more advanced/recent devices...

They have just 10 handhelds (not counting their pda/combo devices) and most of them (like the V66 or the R225m) are well over 16 months old.

Is there a reason for this? Logistical costs? Stick with as few as possible to lower the costs? Lazy?

Amazing that such a "worldclass" carrier doesn't even carry the XDAII, the T630 or any decent Nokia...

If they don't watch out then the combo of Cingular/ATTWS will severly damage their marketshare and without any kind of faster wireless data on the horizon they will be in serious trouble in a few years IMHO.

It's getting pretty bad, isn't it? Can't figure out why they aren't adding newer models. It does seem that T-Mobile caters more to basic consumer market (not business or gadget-freak consumer). So maybe some of those folks don't care. But really, sheesh, yes, some of that stuff is rather dated.

It really is pretty bad. When I started with Tmobile a year ago I bought a factory unlocked version of a phone sold on ATT. Didnt matter much, the dealer gave me a discount based on the new account anyways. Now that it is time to considerer renewing I would like to get another phone out of it but they really dont even have any I would want to get. That said, I have a friend with ATT who is always borrowing my phone so he can make calls. And I do love the unlimited GPRS for twenty bucks a month.

What about the UK T-Mobile range? Is it as bad as the US range?

They include BlackBerry 7230, Motorola V300/V600, Nokia 7250i, SE P900 and T630.

www.tmobile.co.uk/phones

It's much better than the US range http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/eek.gif

Yes. I really expected to see the Nokia 6600 in the US range, for instance. But again I'm wondering if there's more focus on consumers vs business customers, and consumers like the cute look of the 3650 (essentially same thing but with the round dial and such) better. There are no Siemens phones in the US range at all. They do have the Moto V300 now, that's the newest halfway interesting unit to me. I'd like to get the feature range of the Series60 phone in a flip-phone form-factor. As soon as something like that is reasonably priced, I'll jump at it. (Considering I got the 3650 free after rebate on Amazon, somewhere around there is what I consider reasonable. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif)

The somewhat substantiated rumors posted on http://www.howardforums.com/ claim that T-mobile will be adding some new phones sometime in March.

My observation about crappy phones from US cell companies is that the US in general gets second rate phones in relationship to our European and Asian counterparts. Next, I think that the history of cell use and the difficult time that cell companys have had gaining new-to-cells users in the US market have forced their strategy to focus on low price phones and plans. Last, I think that the majority of US cell users are second rate users. They want a phone to make and receive calls on when away from home and office. The cell is definately an addendum, not an alternative. That's why we get cheap, featureless and styleless phones.

My unresearched opinions only. Can't substantiate any of it other than the fact that the US gets less cool phones than Europe.

FWIW I'm about to import a Nokia 6230 to use on T-mobile. Looking forward to Bluetooth.

I think they should also step away from branding each and every one of their phones, making their own boxes and their own manuals, I'm sure that also adds time to the introduction time of a phone.

But I'm amazed that the UK can have a black special edition T630 and the US can't, it's the same company for crying out loud....

ATTWS actually seems to have a semi-decent assortment, half of it is "sold out" but at least they offer them...

Have to add a few things....

It is fairly easy to order service with the cheapest phone available and receive up to $150 in rebates after the cost of the phone. Order the TriBand phone you want from a specialist phone retailer and swap the simm into the "good" phone. Keep the cheapo as a backup.

The new product releases from Moto and SE include the US market. High spec Triband phones are on the rise, but I still don't expect the service retailers to stock them.

The cost of a simfree highend phone is still very high, even with the $150 rebate. A T630 will cost your around $500 and a V600 almost $700.

I've noticed that Orange in the UK have got a very bad selection at the moment, more so than usual. No new SonyEricsson's (T630/Z600), none of the high-end Nokia's, the website only lists 21 in total. Very poor indeed, especially for the largest network in the UK.