Calmly rising up among a veritable swamp of Verizon iPhone discussion and rumors, a Tweet from Wired’s editor in chief now suggests that T-Mobile will actually be the first outside of AT&T in the US to get its name on an Apple phone.
The rather lengthy Tweet from Chris Anderson reads as follows: “A T-Mobile manager casually mentioned to me that they’re going to get the iPhone 3GS (but not 4, oddly) later this year. Common knowledge?”
We would expect that the man in charge of Wired’s editorial content would have some weight to his comments. But it’s hard not to be jaded about all these iPhone rumors after seeing more flip-flopping headlines than a John Kerry campaign.
What is more interesting about this story, though, is that it’s about the iPhone 3GS instead of the iPhone 4. One part of the Verizon/T-Mobile iPhone discussion that has been left out is exactly what kind of iPhone would be on the table.
It is now widely expected that a Verizon iPhone will be available in January, though no one knows if it will be the iPhone 4, the 3GS, or some sort of newly manufactured version of the device. T-Mobile has been out of the headlines recently, but as the only other major carrier that uses GSM technology, it would be the easier choice to get an iPhone. Verizon’s CDMA standard will require Apple to re-manufacture the internal phone’s workings.
But bringing the 3GS to T-Mobile would be a one-two punch for customers. They would get to avoid the worst-rated service of AT&T, and they would also get to avoid the hassle of a faulty antenna with the iPhone 4.
