T-Mobile roadmap shows Dell netbooks, BlackBerry Gemini, and more
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 5th 2009 8:30AM
posted Jun 5th 2009 8:30AM
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Smartphones
- The myTouch 3G (originally identified as the "myPhone" internally, so the name could be worse) is listed for 5/18 manufacturing approval and an 8/5 onsale date online and in stores. As we've said before, this feels late given the company's recent comments about an "early summer" Android debut -- we wouldn't be surprised if it's been tightened up for a quicker release.
- The Dash 3G -- T-Mobile's version of the Snap -- is lined up for 7/1, but it'll be shipped to retail partners (think Best Buy Mobile and the like) on 6/26.
- The Touch Pro2 should be launching in an exciting "mocha" tone (that's the only color listed) on July 22. Notes on this one confirm that it's codenamed Rhodium and is destined to replace the Wing.
- The BlackBerry Gemini is actually listed as the Gemini in here, so we don't know if that's a go-to-market name or if it'll be the 8520 or something even wilder and more exotic, but at any rate, it's listed here for June 22 manufacturing approval in two colors: black and frost. No release date is given.
- The Samsung t749 Highlight, previously known as the "Spark," is a 3G device listed in T-Mobile's style category that'll be launching in exciting-sounding "fire" and "ice" colors on July 15. It looks like this one's been delayed by several months, so we hope it's been made orders of magnitude more awesome during the lull.
- The Samsung t559 Comeback -- yes, Comeback -- was codenamed "XO." It'll launch in frost / silver / cherry and pearl / white / plum with 3G and myFaves 2.0 (we're not sure what's new and improved in 2.0, unfortunately) on July 15.
- As you might've gathered from the name, the Samsung t469 Gravity 2 will be replacing the Gravity when it launches on August 5 with a QWERTY keyboard. It'll be available in "berry mauve" and "metallic pumpkin," and unlike the original, it'll be 3G.
- The good ol' Sammy t819 gets shown the door on September 2 as the t659 (codenamed "Scarlett") comes in with 3G (notice a trend here?). Its launch was pushed back to accommodate the Gravity 2, which is understandably being considered a more important device for the back-to-school season.
- The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic will extend T-Mobile's tradition of launching Nokia's midrange music-centric sets, coming in black / red and pearl white / aqua at an undetermined date -- right now, it's scheduled to hit production on June 22.
- Huawei sets have yet to launch on any of the four national carriers, but one of the company's models -- codenamed "Volcano" -- is scheduled for November 11.
- Sony Ericsson's CS8 will bring 8.1 megapixel glory in a slider form factor when it finally rocks on August 20, which is quite a bit later than we'd hoped. Its little sister, the "Elle," is scheduled to replace the TM506 flip on October 28.
- A Dell netbook of some sort will be shipping to retail partners on October 13, followed by direct company-owned store availability on November 11. It's codenamed "Netbook," which is officially the least-creative codename we've ever heard for any product. Ever. (And that's saying something, considering that the Sony Ericsson CS8 is known internally as the "Peter.") We don't mean to start any wild rumors, but considering that Tegra netbooks should be hitting full force with carriers in their sights this October, it certainly lines up nicely, doesn't it?
- The Huawei E1691 looks lined up to become T-Mobile's second 3G data stick; it's being called the "Laptop Stick Lite," and pictures of the device definitely make it look a little sexier than the current webConnect. It looks lined up for November 17 in stores.
man tmobile releasing some really great phones. it looks like their trying to play catchup since they haven't had a 3g network for so long. can't wait for the touch pro2 to come
indeed. They've said that they're doubling the number of people covered this year (from 100 to 200+million), so it looks like they're getting some nice new phones to match the nice new network. And definitely not a moment too soon. Until now, TMO USA's phone lineup has been pretty terrible. It looks like they're finally learning from the other carriers and other TMO divisions that phone selection diversity is very important.
'Bout time TMO had good phones! While I like their coverage, and the plan prices can't be beat, their phones have always seemed... lacking. Most of their phones have been a year or two later than ATT or VZN. At least they always were better than Sprint.
Chris Ziegler and the Engadget Mobile team are killing it with the exclusive stuff recently!!
you guys rock :)
wow. This is actually really cool.
That's one hell of a document to get leaked.
It will be interesting to see how accurate it turns out to be.
A Dell Tegrabook sounds like it could be fun. A TegrAdamo would be awesome.
Could we get a link to the image? Whenever I click it it just comes back here. It'd be nice to see the actual document.
A brown colored Touch Pro 2?
Ouch, I think I'll pick up the Sprint version rumored to be out in July as well that will let me use a sim card when outside the US. The backside of that looks like a weird synthesizer, but at least the rest of it is black, and one can hope for universal battery covers to help.
I personally would find it amazing if Sprint launched the TP2 in July. I just don't think that will ever happen. I personally think September at the earliest. The TP1 launched with Sprint on the day FCC confidentiality let up, and confidentiality lets up for the TP2 on October 31st.
Obviously the sooner the better, but it would amaze me if Sprint launched the TP2 in July. I would classify that under a small miracle.
I hope I'm right and you're wrong though of course! ;)
Keep in mind that the three carriers that releases the touch pro (verizon being the last) found that they wrongly chose to delay their introductions to the US market. HTC more or less forced the issue with the early leaks of the 2009 road map, surely causing a huge drop in Touch Pro sales as people started to figure out another phone was right around the corner.
It's looking from the release dates floating around out there that *maybe* the carriers are getting with the plan instead of the usual...keeping the good stuff from us so they can milk their current lineup.
I still don't pin much home on them being around for the long term! They might be rolling out some nice devices but they still lack a solid brand statement (such as Verizon's emphasis on network reliability) or a flagship product (such as the iPhone). Their marketing is just a disaster with no real coherence largely due to the fact that the CEO insists on having final call on creative and is hopelessly out of touch. The marketing team has been a revolving door over the years as people get frustrated by not being allowed to do their jobs thanks to Dodson. Keep in mind this is the man who has decided to bring back Catherine Zeta Jones as their spokesperson and when offered the chance to do a promo with Kanye West said no because he didn't know who Kanye West is! On top of that, they're trying to position themselves as the value carrier yet are still losing subscribers. That's bad when you consider that value brands typically increase their market share when the economy goes down! Combine the lack of a cohesive brand, lack of a flagship product, declining subscriber base and lagging network capacity and you don't exactly have a recipe for long term success! At this point the only saving grace for Dodson is that they're not publicly traded so there are no shareholders to pressure him to make changes and the Germans want to hang on to having a presence in the US market.
You're an idiot. T-Mobile is consistently growing in subscribers (Up 4 million in 2008) and they have a flagship product in the G1, which has sold over a million units.
2008 are very old numbers. 40% (and growing) of T-Mob's biz is pay as you go and those are not the customers you want to have in the long run. I'm willing to bet good money I know more people inside T-Mob and their agency than you do. Do you even know who their AOR is?
BTW, if they're doing so well and have such great branding and marketing why have they gone through so many CMO's in recent years? Explain that one you idiot. Also why have so many senior people left their marketing team recently? Why are there so many rumors of their best and brightest people being spotted interviewing over at Microsoft?
You think 1 million G1 sales is a big deal? You really are an idiot. It took less than a week for the 3G iPhone to rack up a million units sold. How long did it take the G1? Also T-Mobile has done very little marketing to make the G1 their flagship product,especially after the initial launch. If you doubt this go to the T-Mob site right now and tell me what device you see. Is it the G1? No, it's the Sidekick LX. Click on the Phones tab and see what comes up - it's not the G1. Is that your idea of a flagship product?? Now go to the AT&T site and what banner do you see first? The 3G iPhone.
I agree with the otehr guy you are a moronic idiot. Sounds like someone pissed they didnt get a job in marketing. And hey, deuchebag, T-Mobile sponsors the NBA, and umm, that sponsorship is working quite well. Hello, Charles Barkeley, Dwane Wayde, Magic Johnson, Yao Ming, Dwight Howard?
Also, bring back CTJones was a smart move and T-Mobile USA is GAINING subscribers. Show me what they are LOSING asshole in print. Becuase in reality, they have net postpaid and prepaid gains as well as low churn.
@minnow
You've been reading too much hype into the iPhone. According to Apple's own statements, Apple sold its one millionth iPhone on Sept 9, 2007, 74 days after its introduction on June 29.
You can read it right here: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/09/10iphone.html
@minnow - Part II -
According to the WSJ, 81% of T-Mobile's customers are on contract: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20090507-900196.html?mod=wsjcrmain
Just to point out a flaw in douchebag logic...
If they have "no marketing" and their "best and brightest minds from marketing" are going leaving and interviewing at Microsoft... Wouldn't that be a good sign? The people who suck are marketing aren't there... and you are friends with most of them... Just by you knowing them, I can understand why they no longer work for T-Mobile.
Get someee.
Hahaha douchebag Minnow fanboi gets owned multiple times.
Get off your knees, son, Jobs has to give a keynote soon.
Wow... finally replacing the Wing...
Tmobile is finally getting some decent smartphones... but they have a lot of catching up to do. Their one redeeming thing, is they were the first with the Android platform. From a WinMo perspective, they are horribly behind.
I find the code names for each product quite funny!
I guess it makes sense incase this info gets leaked...
Nothing at all to keep me with T-Mobile. Say you're getting the a non eos palm os phone and i'm staying. Short of that. Well not likely.
Why does ti matter so much which phone the carrier sells? You can always buy the phone you like unbranded.
yes you will pay the full price, but if you go to a carrier that costs more monthly, sign a 2yr agreement and buy the phone from them, you will end up paying say $20/mo extra for 2 yrs.. that's 24mo x $20 = $480. Add the price of the phone you got and you end up paying the same as if you bought the phone unbranded.
So you end up paying the same and sponsoring the greedier company that offers less service for more money.
Hmm...3G you say?
Well, I've been keeping a short tab on my download speeds lately, because of the lag I sometimes get, even when out in the open, in a fixed position. The numbers are all over the place.
1508 Kbps - 7:53 pm - 5/26/09
601 Kbps - 12:18 am - 5/27/09
1585 Kbps - 3:11 am - 5/27/09
1409 Kbps - 7:11 pm - 5/27/09
1342 Kbps - 4:10 pm - 5/28/09
254 Kbps - 10:23 pm - 5/29/09
@Michael
I know several people at T-Mob on the marketing/advertising team. Also know many of the people at their AOR. I talk to all of them on an almost daily basis. I'm also still a T-Mob customer (largely due to the vendor discount) and want to see them do well. Would hate to see my friends have to go to work for AT&T in Redmond! That place is a hell hole to work at.
As for churn rates, they're still higher than AT&T despite all the effort by T-Mobile to provide greater customer service and for FY08 they increased over FY07. Also likely that will get worse thanks to FlexPay which courts low income/bad credit customers. Look what happened a few years ago when Sprint adopted a similar strategy. Think I'm wrong? Look at the Dow Jones report released back in April. For Q109 contract customers accounted for only 39% of growth compared to 75% in Q108. That's a big drop in your best/most profitable customers and also explains why ARPU has declined. As for the 4 million gains in '08, that number is a whole lot less impressive when you realize over a million were due to the SunCom acquisition. You can't sustain growth through acquisitions. Here's one last number to chew on: for Q109 T-Mob gained 415,000 new customers. Sounds nice until you see that in Q109 AT&T gained 1.2 million.
The NBA sponsorship budget is down this year - way down. Look at the Jam Session for 2009 and compare it to what they did in Vegas in 07 or New Orleans in 08. Granted, sports sponsorships on the whole are way down so no surprises there.
Dotson wants T-Mob to be a youth brand? This despite the fact that he doesn't know who Kanye West is and instead decided to bring back Zeta Jones who hasn't been in a major movie since Ocean's Twelve 5 years ago??
You forgot to mention that the average revenue per user (post-paid) for T-Mobile is $52, whereas it's $59.21 for AT&T.
See? You pay more for AT&T.
I'm sorta lucky, in that I am carrying over my straight 1500 anytime minutes (no nights and weekends) for $39.99, and with my $25 unlimited data w/ 400 msgs, I only pay $67.42 / month. If I wanted to - because I was offered - I could have upgraded to unlimited voice for an additional $10/month, so I'd essentially be paying about $78/ month for unlimited data and phone.
What do you pay on AT&T for similar services? $135 for unlimited minutes, data and 200 msgs, or $75 for 450 minutes, unlimited data and 200 msgs. Either way, I win.
Learn how to spell your username before you come on here spewing non-truths and B.S.. Is it Minow (which is how u spelled it on 1 post or is it Minnow (how u spelled it on the other posts). You are a minnow and I am the BIG FISH, gulp your gone. ((LOL))
MyFaves 2.0 is supposed to be a software & launch of MyFaves 10
@m3tric
Actually you're the douchebag. I don't own an iPhone, I own Blackberry and HTC handsets. iPhone's are for fools with more money than brains.
@gerrrg
Ummm...I did mention ARPU dropping.
No no, I'm just saying...just take a look at the ARPU, and you can see the difference between what AT&T and TMo users are paying, which is exemplified by my cost comparison to someone using the iPhone versus my G1 costs.
I think TMo delivers an excellent bargain.
Hey guys one question, is there on the view the Samsung i7500 aka Galaxy??? I can't seem to find it on the roadmap!
Please let me know. It already passed FCC controls like a month and a half ago!
Learn how to spell your username before you come on here spewing non-truths and B.S.. Is it Minow (which is how u spelled it on 1 post or is it Minnow (how u spelled it on the other posts). You are a minnow and I am the BIG FISH, gulp your gone. ((LOL))