A new advertisement from T-Mobile places the cross hairs squarely on Apple Inc. (NADSDAQ:AAPL) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in a battle to convince customers that their network offers enhanced speed. The advertisement was posted on YouTube.com yesterday by T-Mobile.
The advertisement is not innovative in itself. Parenthesis are included for greater explanation of the subtle narrative. It portrays a bland motorcyclist (the iPhone on AT&T) being overtaken at high speed by a sexy T-Mobile colored heroine (T-Mobiles 4G Network). It does signal an attitude from T-Mobile that the iPhone, the nation’s most popular smartphone model, is fair game in the battle for more subscribers.
The company does not currently offer the iPhone 4S as the handset is not compatible with the firm’s data network. The company is however planning to allow iPhone users to access that network by the end of the year in a strategic move the company is highly publicizing. Concurrent with the development of its own 4G LTE network the company is developing a compromise HDSPA + 4G network on a piece of spectrum it recently obtained from AT&T.
The new network will be compatible with the iPhone according to the firm. This ad makes it clear that the company calls the device fair game as a target until it is offered by the company. The iPhone does not yet operate on 4G networks and T-Mobile’s upgrade may be just the thing to attract customers to the firm.
That plan could be scuppered by the rumored 4G capable iPhone 5 which is expected to launch later this year. T-Mobile is still only in the planning stages for the development of its T-Mobile network. The release of a 4G device now could leave the company vulnerable for some time to come.
The release of a 4G iPhone is expected to complement the already 4G capable iPad and make 4G the new standard in wireless data. All of the major networks are spending billions of dollars developing networks and back haul infrastructure to support the increase in data usage.
T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telecom AG (PINK:DTEGY), is the only one of the four large national carriers in the United States that does not offer the iPhone. The company hopes to remedy that ssituation but until then sees no wrong in denigrating the device to increase its subscription base.
You can watch the full ad from T-Mobile below:
