T-Mobile Throws Weight Behind Samsung In IP Battle With Apple

On Sunday I covered how Verizon was siding with Samsung in their IP battle with Apple, and now it appears T-Mobile has also decided to weigh in on the issue. Today, T-Mobile filed an amicus brief opposing the Samsung Galaxy ban. From their statement:

While T-Mobile respects intellectual property rights and believes that owners of intellectual property deserve the right to present their arguments and evidence of infringement in court, a preliminary injunction is a drastic and extraordinary measure, and the courts should pay particular attention to its public consequences

T-Mobile may soon be the only major U.S. mobile carrier to not offer the iPhone, with rumors that Sprint will soon offer the top-selling device. Couple this with the fact that 90% of the smartphones T-Mobile sold in 2011 run Android and you can start to see why they too are concerned over the ban.

Cole Brodman, Chief Marketing Officer for T-Mobile USA has made it apparent that they do not know when they may carry the iPhone. From GigaOm:

“We’d love to have the iPhone whenever Apple makes that available,” he said, adding that the ball is in Apple’s court. “We are waiting for that phone call.”

I always thought a major selling point of Android was the diversity offered from multiple handset makers. But if Apple wins their case against Samsung, this could cause problems for future Android phones before they make it to market. Considering T-Mobile relies almost exclusively on the Android smartphone platform, this precedent could spell problems for them going forward.


T-Mobile Not Getting iPhone 5 at Launch

According to TmoNews, Cole Brodman, Chief Marketing Officer for T-Mobile USA, stated via a leaked internal memo that “[w]e are not going to get the iPhone 5 this year.” That makes Robert Scoble’s rumor about T-Mobile launching the iPhone 5 on September 25th null and void.

T-Mobile Leaked Internal Memo

TmoNews

Rumor: iPhone 5 Coming to T-Mobile Sept. 25th

Robert Scoble just posted on Google+ that a T-Mobile customer service rep told his friend that T-Mobile “will be the first to get iPhone 5, coming September 25, and that they have been in training for weeks for this.” Below is the full quote, as well as a screen capture:

T-Mobile getting ready for iPhone 5? A friend of mine was just on the phone with one of the customer support reps and he got him to tell him what’s up (very strange, I know, but TMobile employees might not know that’s a no-no). The rep said that the company will be the first to get iPhone 5, coming September 25, and that they have been in training for weeks for this.

Robert Scoble on iPhone 5 on T-Mobile

Edit: Just to clarify, I marked this as a rumor for obvious reasons. Normally I would ignore stories like this, but what peaked my interest was how “they have been in training for weeks for this.”