In an interview with
FierceWireless, T-Mobile USA's senior VP of engineering and operations (and newly-minted chairman of 3G Americas' board) Neville Ray has slipped a couple juicy morsels in the process of talking up his carrier's ongoing 3G rollout. Besides mentioning that T-Mobile wants to double its 3G footprint in 2009, Ray says that "we will be launching more G series phones and other products... in the coming weeks and months." If we had to guess, this probably (hopefully) has something to do with that
HTC Sapphire we've seen floating around lately. What's more, you'll see T-Mobile start to ramp up peripheral support this year -- gotta monetize that multi-billion-dollar network somehow -- with a
modem launch. All told, these guys still have a long way to catch up in the 3G race with Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint -- but if you want bleeding-edge
Android stuff, looks like they'll continue to be your best bet for a while.
[Via
TmoNews]
posted Jan 30th 2009 12:31PM
Whats this? A T-Mobile phone without a giant chin attached?! That's madness!!
Madness? THIS IS ANDROID!!!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Well at least the G2 still has a chin :)
Why do people hate the chin so much? I barely notice it on my G1.
Chins are manly.
The Tick and Gears of War taught us that.
I'm still waiting for the G-String version...
I had been skeptical about the form factor of the g1 until I actually was able to get one in my hands. I was amazed to find that I really liked it. It allows you to scroll even while in landscape mode and helped balance the phone in my hands when I was using the keyboard (it fits quiet well in the natural ridge between thumb and index finger). For some reason, I feel like the chin looks much bigger in the pictures than it really is.
Wish they had the G1 for sprint though :(
Storm and iPhone. Best phones out there. Gonna be hard to top.
G1 and Touch HD. Best phones out there. Gonna be hard to top.
http://www.crappy-unrelated-website.com
The Storm is one of the best devices? Really? I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
My Touch Pro kicks the Storm to the curb.
No, the Storm is pretty universally terrible. I was scared, the pictures looked great, and I thought about giving up the G1.
Then, I used one.
No.
Richard, your touch pro sucks
If t-mobile's customer service didnt royally piss me off I would switch back.......
How does T-Mobile customer service piss you off? Haven't they won a couple of JD Power awards in that area?
I've actually found T-Mobile's customer service to be pretty good (in US, UK and Germany), and their prices are decent. Definitely my carrier of choice.
Excellent prices and customer service. Up until now their only problems were phone selection and 3g but those are pretty much dealt with.
If T-Mobile wasn't wasn't T-Mobile I might actually be excited about these phones....(goes back to wishing for the Verizon version of the Pam Pre)
If T-Mobile actually had coverage in NYC, I'd seriously consider them. But coverage is a joke.
I love T-MObile and can't wait till that new rhodium phone drops.
the Rhodium is sexy....
seriously! It has a great look yet a full keyboard
I was thinking the same thing. This might be the thing that gets me to try Android. I didn't like the design of the G1, it was ugly in my opinion.
I agree. I'd upgrade my G1 with the Rhodium. Not that white thing though..
yeah, the biggest problem i had with the G1 is that it was fugly. the rhodium looks much better.
I love my G1, great phone... definitely not winning any beauty contests though lol.
Why would I care about the Sapphire when I can see the sexy Rhodium right above it?
That sexy rhodium is meant for verizon. All android phones are ugly.
if the rhodium were a tmo exclusive, i would buy it the day it would be released, but since sprint is also getting it, ima go w/ sprint since they have a decent and nationwide 3g network unlike tmo...unles tmo did what tmo europe does and hand it out for free on a 2yr contract :)
Is it just me or is everyone else tired of the vague comments, with phrases like "in 2009"? That's a whole year, an eternity in cell phone land. I'm tired of hearing articles like this. I'll be needing a new phone soon, which will mean extending my contract 2 years or signing up with someone else for two years. Do I go with the iPhone 3G? No, wait, I just heard rumors that the new firmware has a code that may mean that there may be a new model coming out soon. Any word on when that will be? Of course not, nobody knows! Apple probably doesn't even know when they will put it out. Maybe tomorrow, maybe for the 2009 holidays, who knows. In, fact who knows if it's even in the late stages of development or not. The new Curve is coming out in mid-February, supposedly it's good, but how much is it, and of course it doesn't have 3G, so will that frustrate me? The Pre is coming out somewhere around summer time, but do I really want to go with Sprint? Now we hear that T-mobile will be coming out with more G phones. Will they suck through batteries like the G1, and WHEN WILL THIS HAPPEN? In 2009 they say they want to double their 3G area, but there's no mention of a possible release date for the phones. But hey we have fuzzy pictures of the possible new device. More importantly, this wouldn't be so frustrating if we didn't have 2 year contracts. How about we just pay for our own phones and if your service is bad we leave? What happened to competition? I guess I could just get a Nokia E71 and do just that, that's probably what I'll do. Maybe some people like looking at grainy as hell pictures of "what-could be", but I'd rather just hear about what has been developed, the full specs, and the release date. All this serves to do is make you feel like you have a piece of crap phone before the next big thing is even out. Or if you just bought the latest and greatest and hop on it's nice browser to check out some tech news, you realize in a couple of months there's going to be a better, smaller, more powerful version of what you just got. I know, none of what I'm saying hasn't been said already. Yeah, that's the way the tech industry is, yada, yada, yada. But I just wanted to get it off my chest. I'm tired of being a slave to the rumor mill. I'm going to get something and just try to be happy with it!
Dude, you need to calm down.
So, basically as a summery: Your tired of not being told of an exact release date, and you're just going to get something that's out now and not worry about any of the unknown new stuff!
Sorry, I'm just letting off a little steam, but seriously why bother with blurry shots and ambiguous dates(if any)? It's like:
Engadget (and other tech media)
NEWS FLASH!
A new phone is coming out sometime in the future! Here's a sneak peak by a fellow geek who for some reason owns 1 megapixel digicam with malfunctioning auto-focus(actually it's a leaked image from the company itself as a marketing ploy, they don't want a clear image because it would spotlight the flaws in this supposedly great device).
Me (Sarcastically):
No kidding, an advancement in phone technology is going to be made? What, companies are going to make more models? No kidding, thanks so much for enlightening me! I'll make sure to wait with baited breath and a heart full of anticipation, meanwhile despising my current phone which I now think belongs on the antiques roadshow.
Don't get me wrong though, I appreciate Engadget's articles. I like their reviews and preview articles that have exact dates, however.
I'm with you Julio. All this talk about possible phones coming out with possible features is getting to me as well. I will probably be getting a new phone either late spring or mid summer. I'm really wanting an Android phone but so far my only option is the G1 and personally it does not appeal to me and I've been hearing about some of the issues that exist with the OS. Every time one of these tech sites get a word on possible Android updates or Android based phones, I get excited but then I quickly realize its just a rumor and there are no dates on when stuff is getting released.
At this point you can only go with what has already been tried n tested ,more importantly consumer approved. A product with reliability,reputation,speed,innovation,sexiness a phone in which u can truly say,"this has replaced my widescreen video ipod". You get my drift. So now u have your answer. May the technology gods be with you.
@shugg
You make a lot of good points, but it still baffles me that the iPhone still doesn't have cut and paste capabilities. Something I frequently used on my BB Pearl.
Hey HTC, can we get the Android Rhodium with a 3G radio that works with 1900/850MHz? Because that would be great. Not everyone is in the US or on T-Mobile.
um 850/1900MHz is US 3G, so your asking for 900/2100MHz for EuroAsia. The only other country in NA that uses 850/1900MHz is Mexico
@luv_carrier_branding_:):
WRONG. Rogers in Canada uses 1900/850MHz for GSM, with 850 being used for its 3G. Telstra in Australia also uses the 850MHz band. Telus and Bell in Canada are planning to switch from CDMA to GSM/UMTS/LTE and early indications are that these bands will be used by them as well. There are also providers in South America who use one or both of these frequencies. To characterise it as "US 3G" shows a lack of knowledge and understanding.
the only reason why i call it us 3g is because the frequencies are primarily used in the US. and my bad i 4got that australia also uses 850/2100 mhz. otherwise latin and south america use a combo of euro-amero frequencies
WTF is with the burn your eyes out neon green all the time from this guy? seriously, try pink or something next time..
@Tylertech
Precisely, thank you for your SUMMARY!
I pay about 40 bucks a month for Comcast internet. I am going to switch to AT&T naked DSL because it is cheaper. The G1 is a great phone, but other than is gadget appeal, all it is is a way to drain you of more money for more services. What does full internet access on a G1 go for through t-Mobile? $40 a month? I am switching to MetroPCS for phone service and get a Peek for email. yeah, go ahead and vote me negative, but, these toys get expensive to maintain with the monthly service plans.
That's why you comparison shop for carriers. I've been using Sprint for the past 6 years because unlimited data only costs me $15/month. When they upgraded their network to EVDO it stayed the same. When I upgraded through various smartphones, it stayed the same. Speeds are on par with basic DSL and I use it as a modem when I am on the road without internet access.
My data unlimited through t-mobile is $20 a month
how did u get that unlimited data for $15/mo??
Bleeding edge Andriod sounds good, but when are these things going to add UMA support? They finally made a WinMo phone with UMA, Android needs to step it up here. Do we even know if these new phones have WiFi support?
Well according to THIS list.....Sprint is gettin a couple new phones Courtesy of HTC.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/01/12/htcs-full-2009-lineup-revealed/
Hmm...im starting to thing the Hell with the Pre if Sprint is Getting an Android. And why buy a new one on T-Mobile if their 3g is Lousy???
Tmobile's 3g isn't lousy, just new. Where it works, it is a lot faster than at&t's 3g, but the coverage of the 3g is not very good.
i think that Rhondium will be windows mobile. just a gut. And i don't think i've seen htc release the same hardware with two different OS's.
i'd get a Rhondium Android but not with winmo or that G2.
I switched from iPhone to G1. So far, the only downside is T-Mobile's voicemail; I miss the visual voicemail on the iPhone. I have tried some of the 3rd-party visual voicemail solutions, but they aren't quite ready for prime time. I expect that there will eventually be a usable visual voicemail, and other that than, I have found the G1 to be far more useful. I guess I can live with T-Mobile's shortcomings.
It's interesting that the strongest praise anybody has for their cellphone provider is that "it doesn't suck as bad as company X", which is kinda sad. If any of the cellphone companies could just get it right, they'd clean up.