Editorial: A Quick Note From Your Editor (That’s Me) Regarding Coverage

mrtmeme

There is a devil and an angel on my shoulders right now, one of which is saying post this and try to explain your position. The other is saying post it, rant your little heart out and close off the comment section. Let’s see which voice I should have listened to:

In recent days, there have been some “complaints” on the rise in iPhone coverage, specifically after the official iPhone announcement. I just want to clarify something right from the get go, this is a T-Mobile site, not an Android blog, or a BlackBerry blog or a Windows Phone blog, but T-Mobile. I, and I’m using the first-person because you’ll recognize I write 99.9999999% of the articles here (and yes, I know I need some help) hope we recognize that means coverage will extend to every operating system T-Mobile has on their shelves.

In other words, my coverage is determined by what’s news, not by my personal feelings or opinions. For five years since the site came into existence I’ve run it the best way I see, to cover T-Mobile news. Are there times I want to branch out my Android coverage? Sure, but there’s a fine line and I don’t want to turn TmoNews into an Android site. The same goes with the iPhone, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. I don’t want any device to completely dominate news, but there are exceptions to that unwritten rule I have.

Point in case: last week there was an uptick in iPhone coverage and I saw some complaints and I scratched my head. The iPhone was just announced, T-Mobile is the last national carrier to carry the device and it’s been the one glaring omission in T-Mobile’s smartphone lineup. Did anyone honestly think I wouldn’t give it a lot of coverage? I didn’t stretch for coverage or write more iPhone articles just because I felt like it. I covered what was necessary and what I felt was worth bringing to your attention. In fact, that’s how all my coverage is determined, by what I think you all are most interested in.

As a one-man show, I do my best to pick what I think will interest the majority of readers. I know not every article excites you and I know you will skip over those that don’t and I expect that. I do the very same thing at any number of other news sites online, tech blog or otherwise. There’s no sounding board for me, but doing this for a long time has helped me gauge what’s interesting and what’s not. Some of my post choices are wins, some are losses.

The bottom line is that I don’t ask, or want anyone to read something that doesn’t interest them, but just skip over the article instead of complaining about it. I get that some of you don’t understand the interest behind iOS, or Android or Windows Phone and that’s fine, have passion for your choice, I respect that. What I do ask is that you respect the idea that someone else has a different choice and remember that just because another platform doesn’t interest you, doesn’t mean it won’t interest someone else. We could sit here all day and argue about iOS looking long in the tooth or that only 20% of the hardware can use the most advanced features etc , etc.

Moving forward there will be more iPhone coverage on the blog as the lead-up to every smartphone launch in the history of the site has overwhelmed coverage. In the next 10 days, the iPhone news will increase, then the HTC One news leading up to its launch and then the Galaxy S 4 and so on. That’s how I’ve always done it and I do it because there is a finite number of flagship launches on T-Mobile and I up my coverage for each one. But let me be clear, I won’t write Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or iPhone news just for the sake of writing news. Anyone who has been around this site long enough knows there are days I don’t post anything at all because there isn’t 365 days of T-Mobile news.

Today I could have written about iPhone 5S rumors, iOS 7 and Tim Cook apologizing to China but I didn’t, because if I covered every Android or iOS rumor I’d never stop writing. Expect to see big rumors about Android 5.0/Key Lime Pie or whatever dessert is next because it’s relevant to Android users who comprise a large part of the T-Mobile smartphone customer base. That being said, major news about the next iOS software will likely be covered moving forward. In that I mean that if someone manages to get a picture of a new iPhone homescreen, I’m going to post it. Why? Because iPhone 5 users will undoubtedly be able to update to it, which is the hopeful reason I would write about Android 5.0 rumors. That is T-Mobile related because it affects T-Mobile devices. Is that a stretch? Maybe, but it’s true.

I apologize for the rant and what I can only imagine is a dizzy read. I’ve been up for far too long and changed far too many diapers today. All I ask of you, the TmoNews reader is that you respect the idea behind my coverage and if something doesn’t interest you, don’t read it. Just don’t walk away from the site because of it. I value each and every reader TmoNews has and I take these matters personally because I’m so deeply entrenched in the site. I’ve worked very, very hard to create a relationship with my readers and that is something I value very much, so let’s all play nice mmmmkay?

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