I know I’m late to this article. Many months, in fact. But I stumbled into this article by searching “robert dotson fail iphone” in Google. And sure enough, I land here. T-Mobile is the “value leader” in the big 4 mobile phone providers within the USA. But our value is in the monthly bill. It’s not felt in their offered handsets, sadly. One first thing I have to get off my chest …THE DAYS OF PRIVATE LABELING HANDSETS ARE OVER!!! MOVE ON! Where companies like Apple and RIM succeed is by keeping their products as hush-hush as possible until near launch. No one is better at this than Apple. By the time anyone officially hears about their products, it’s near launch – giving little time to ponder the purchase. And the buzz is ridiculous. Enough so, where lines wrap around street corners for days. Who else can you say has that kind of success story for a phone launch… for every generation released so far? Right… no one.

T-Mobile makes the fatal error presuming that most of their phone geeks aren’t savvy enough to learn that products, such as the MyTouch, aren’t actually T-Mobile hardware. The handset is actually HTC, and has been available for the last 3 months in other countries. Same with the Touch Pro. Same with the Dash. Same with the Shadow. All HTC. All private labeled. All released in other countries first, with T-Mobile USA coming in dead last on launch. So with the MyTouch around the corner, I’m already hearing heavy buzz about the next-generation Android handsets, like the HTC Hero, Samsung Galaxy, HTC Click, Sony-Ericsson “Rachael.” Because their is no mystery there. No surprises. No “wow.” Then Apple makes an announcement, and steals everyone’s thunder.

Robert Dotson – T-Mobile needs a long overdue “mobile makeover.” It’s time to redesign the brand to revolve around mobile service, instead of hardware products. The MyTouch – I’m sorry, but it’s the Magic. The G1, last I saw, it was the Dream. Who makes it? HTC – not T-Mobile. T-Mobile Dash …er Snap. The Sidekick – last I remember, Sharp makes it. And it’s called the “Hip Top.” Why we change names is beyond me. I personally feel like we’re being deceitful, offering an older product that was rebranded to make it look new. Sort of like changing the expiration dates on milk cartons to keep it in the display fridge longer.

Let’s offer the best coverage and service we possibly can. Let’s qualify, quality check, and integrate handsets into our line, and let the manufacturer do the marketing. Brand power is key. Which is why Apple, RIM, & Palm do so well. Let HTC be HTC. And Sharp be Sharp.

And let’s get LTE done ASAP. Let’s be the leader in this, and not fall dead last …again… in rolling out an unavoidable roadmapped service. This is important.

I’m going to try to end with this – Your customers aren’t stupid. Yet, the decisions T-Mobile executives make leave me thinking that they view their customers as less than savvy. Or are too comfortable with old methods and old technology themselves to propel a cutting edge company into the next tier. This needs to be remedied ASAP. Or another company with a hostile takeover proposal will serve that remedy.

And one final note – The MyTouch packaging looks like it’s aimed towards attracting a 16 year old kid. Marketing team behind this design …FIRED!

I’m done. Thank you, Goodnight!

what really kills me…was Steve Jobs approached Tmo USA first…and hommie didnt want to play…i wonder if he throws up in the mouth a little everytime he sees an Iphone commercial followed by “only on ATT”

We live in a technologically progressive society. Every aspect of our being has been influenced by technology playing it’s part in making life a bit easier for us. In the last decade the cell phone become the centerpiece of our lifestyle. What would we do without them? How many of us use them as our primary means of communication? Most of us.

The carriers that we choose all have insight in this area since they can see the usage trends on their networks and plan accordingly. In T-Mobile’s case they just bucked the trend and decided that voice was the only option their subscribers were concerned with. How wrong they were. As the trend in home internet speeds increased who wouldn’t think that these same consumers would want to have that type of speed in a mobile device? Verizon knew….AT&T knew….Sprint knew. T-Mobile???? Well….we’re banking on voice…oh…and the Sidekick R2D2 Edition.

As I said earlier…relationships are the key component in attracting business. T-Mobile can’t cry about it because it’s been ever so apparent the weak relationships they’ve had with the handset makers. You can’t fault them for not being inclined to make more devices for the network while other carriers have been much kinder.

I don’t claim to know everything about this market but I think I have a pretty good idea about what’s wrong with most of it and why some do better than others. Also having the opportunity to work for a carrier in the past gave me a closer look at how things function. And definitely working in the IT department allows you to see memos and hear conversations between top execs and vendors on the direction each company is headed. They work as a partnership.

In the case of T-Mobile…they’re banking the farm on Android. What a COLOSSAL mistake that will be. Android is OK but it’s a baby when you put it again the likes of Apple’s OS Blackberry. Partly the OS but mainly the devices. Android should have been showcased on something more capable and better looking than the G1. Say what you will but looks kill. And the G1 is one ugly chick when you put in next to the iPhone. It’s like putting Kathy Griffin up against Angelina Jolie. Yeah…you could do them both but which one would you rather do?
I’ll take Jolie.

Seriously wtf was he and his circle of friends thinking? Data isnt improtant? now it’s being pushed like crack is pushed in the inner city we need to increase data arpu etc wtf really? Gee what a novel idea…it’ll be a sad day indeed when we lag Sprint of all companies.

Here’s a tip start advertising your devices and how you have 3G devices and dare i say a 3G NETWORK. We launched the Sidekick LX with NO FANFARE seriously wtf, with all the tweeners suckling on Twitter, Facebook, and myspace why are you not advertising these in commercials? Instead we have this sophomoric attempt at being a BRAND with these lame somewhat whimsical attempt at humor.

I have a feeling DT will step in soon and take over…you watch

i’m starting to question why i’m even working for t-mobile, but at the same time i understand that t-mobile does not have the budget to belch out all the new phones. back in the day, relationships is what kept companies strong and together, but now a days, money talks. when it comes to their network and their 3G and future 4G then questions need to be answered. t-mobile has almost double the towers compared to the other carriers out there. t-mobile has been slacking with data and their 3G and the thing is, they have all the means necessary to put up 4G; look at AT&T and their TV DATA capabilities, they are making cake off of that, apparently.

i hate to say it, but AT&T is looking good right now. T-Mobile, it might be Good Bye…

T-Mobile’s strategies have been off focus for quite some time and now trying to build these relationships are much more difficult because of the lack of investment made to getting a more of these handsets on the network. There’s no excuse for this….so many of the other carriers have these features…why not T-Mo?

It is in fact a numbers game but who’s to blame when you fail to be more competitive? The handset makers look at the field of players and push hard at sending phones their way with features they know the subscribers want. They also know the carrier of choice will push an aggressive marketing campaign for the phones. I’m really tired of watching commercials where the other carriers are showing off their great phones and the best T-Mobile can come up with is a awkwardly cute MyFaves commercial. Give us phones!!!!!

3G is a different animal than GSM for phones. Before we get better deals on phones since AT&T had basicly the same frequency bands. They could sell T-Mobile and AT&T the same phone. Now, T-Mobile is on their own for the most part. The lateness of a 3G Blackberry is a perfect example. T-Mobile wanted one at launch, but its all in RIM’s hands. Thats not really a company you can strongarm into speeding up because they offer a popular and pretty unique product.

I think we can all agree that T-Mobile has some positive sides to their business plan business plan. But this is not a business designed to rate who’s the nicest…it’s being the most aggressive that wins. T-Mobile suffers miserably in this area.

@Enrgy52 you’re right as well. I’ve been to the UK a number of times in the past couple years and I always come home frustrated by the T-Mobile US handset offerings. T-Mo UK has an awesome – the have the Nokia 5800, LG Arena (KM900), Samsung Pixon, and the G1. And the list is bigger than what I mentioned. In the US we’re forced fed the G1 as if its the last phone on the planet. I just saw the about T-Mobile’s glee of selling one million G1s. I honestly think that number is a bit exaggerated. Selling million phones doesn’t translate into use on the network. I had two G1s – I sold one to someone that unlocked it and used it on AT&T. I called them a couple weeks ago and they tossed it in a drawer after a couple months of use. The other G1 is now a toy for my 13 month old daughter. Seriously.

Look….we as faithful subscribers of T-Mobile need to stand up, rant, and protest our dissatisfaction on how things are run. If we don’t stand up for something we’ll stand for anything. Don’t settle for what T-Mobile is dishing out.

Waiting on 3G was a decision way beyond my paygrade. Up until recently I was a tech and the techs feel the same way about it as the customers. Until about 3 years ago T-Mobile corporate completely underestimated data importance. That has changed greatly over the last couple of years but its an uphill race now. My group is even improving our edge network while working on 3G. The changes in the phone lineup should start reflecting the change from a ‘voice first’ network we have been to the ‘complete network’ we are going to be. I believe the success of the G1 has proven how needed thesee devices are. Its definitely not a perfwct device but the revenue has been excellent. There is much more still to come.