Hasta La Gadget!

Sony unveiled the Magenta exclusive Xperia Z1S smartphone back at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2014 last week, and as promised, the carrier has started selling the smartphone today. The device can be purchased right now through T-Mobile’s website for $528 off contract, those who don’t want to spend that much money at once can opt for the carrier’s equipment installment plan and pay 24 equal monthly payments of $22.

This smartphone isn’t all that different from the Sony Xperia Z1, which was released back in 2013. It touts a full 1080p HD 5 inch display, a quadcore Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM, a 20.7 megapixel rear camera and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The Xperia Z1S is also waterproof. If you have been planning to purchase a PlayStation 4 as well, Sony is currently running the perfect promotion. It is offering customers a $100 Visa gift card if they purchase a PS4 along with the Xperia Z1S. Those who want to sign up for T-Mobile’s new program, in which it pays your entire family’s early termination fee should you all switch to Magenta before your contract with your current carrier is up, you will have to wait for the Xperia Z1S to reach stores on January 22nd. The ETF program can only be signed up for through T-Mobile retail stores.

Sony Xperia Z1S Available Now From T-Mobile original content from Ubergizmo.

According to our earlier report, T-Mobile appeared to have stopped selling BlackBerry devices. We had heard rumors that the carrier was planning to remove BlackBerry smartphones from their stores due to apparent low demand for them, and the lack of BlackBerry products on their website seemed to corroborate those rumors. Well the good news is that T-Mobile has not dropped support for BlackBerry devices entirely. Based on what a T-Mobile representative told the folks at CrackBerry, it seems that those looking to get a BlackBerry will have to ask for it specifically and that it will be shipped to them directly as opposed to being able to pick one up from their stores.

“T-Mobile continues to support the BlackBerry platform. Current T-Mobile customers can buy BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 devices online at https://my.t-mobile.com through Care and B2B sales channels. New customers can order the smartphones via direct ship at T-Mobile retail channels or through telesales. The T-Mobile retail channel has moved to fulfillment via direct ship for BlackBerry devices, rather than in-store inventory.” This also means that new customers who do not know about alternative platforms, such as BlackBerry, will basically not know that they have to ask for it specifically, which definitely does not seem to help BlackBerry at all. At least they still have AT&T, right?

T-Mobile Will Continue Selling BlackBerry Devices, But Only As Direct Shipping original content from Ubergizmo.

As we had reported yesterday, T-Mobile had officially unveiled Uncarrier 4.0, the carrier’s latest move to entice customers from other carriers onto their network. One of the main selling points of Uncarrier 4.0 would be T-Mobile’s willingness to pay up to $350 to cover a customer’s early termination fees (ETF), along with up to $300 for a phone trade-in, basically giving a customer as much as $650 to switch to T-Mobile. Now $650 is no joke to a lot of people and based on feedback so far, you guys have agreed that it is pretty tempting, so if this goes off better than T-Mobile anticipates, wouldn’t they lose a lot of money in the process? Well as it turns out, T-Mobile does not think so.

Speaking to CNET, T-Mobile’s CFO Braxton Carter revealed that the carrier has already estimated that most ETFs that they would have to pay would average around $150. This is also because they expect more customers to be well into their contract by now, hence the lower ETFs, and they also expect that there would be instances where they might not have to pay anything at all. Speaking overall, the entire situation is viewed in a positive light and any financial burdens that might be placed at the start are expected to be recouped through customers remaining with T-Mobile and using their products and services.

Admittedly this sounds like a huge gamble for T-Mobile but like we said, $650 is definite no laughing matter and would definitely do its job at tempting more than a few customers over from rival carriers. What do you guys think? Will T-Mobile’s latest Uncarrier plan succeed?

T-Mobile CFO Explains Why They Can Afford To Pay Customers’ ETFs original content from Ubergizmo.

Some claims can be a rather difficult act to follow, but sometimes, a statement needs to be made if you are going to be a standout example in the industry. T-Mobile has stepped forward to claim that they have the fastest 4G LTE network in the nation, bar none. Would subscribers to AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint beg to differ? I am quite sure that this particular debate is far from over, and T-Mobile’s own statement, “I warned the competition this day would come, and millions of speed tests from real people using their own phones prove it: T-Mobile’s nationwide 4G LTE network is the fastest network in the nation — bar none”, is definitely forceful and full of intent.

Just how did T-Mobile arrive at this conclusion? They used a different (some would say more transparent) path compared to the competition, where they relied on mobile data speed tests that has been collected from real consumers using the popular Ookla Speedtest app. T-Mobile’s analysis of the results are clear, and the Un-carrier’s announcement is confident that their claim will hold after referring to millions of real-time speed tests that involved over a million consumers. Do you share the same sentiment as T-Mobile? [Press Release]

T-Mobile: We Have The Fastest 4G LTE Network In The US original content from Ubergizmo.

Back in 2013 we reported on the rumors that T-Mobile might no longer be interested in carrying BlackBerry devices anymore. The reason? Well apparently disappointing BlackBerry sales have apparently been a pretty compelling reason, and it looks like those rumors could be coming true. The folks at N4BB have recently attempted to purchase a BlackBerry device via T-Mobile’s online store, and a cursory search for BlackBerry phones yielded only one device, the BlackBerry Curve 9315 which was launched about a year ago. Pretty strange as you might think that at the very least the carrier would offer BlackBerry’s latest handsets, right?

Perhaps some of you guys think it could be a glitch in the system or database where the results are only returning a single product, but when they called T-Mobile directly to enquire about this, they were told by the representative that they were no longer selling BlackBerry devices. Of course the person who told them might have only been a customer service rep who might not know the full story, but as it stands T-Mobile has yet to comment on this, but hopefully they will and we will be able to learn more about this soon. T-Mobile has recently launched Uncarrier 4.0 making it incredibly tempting for customers to jump ship, but with the carrier potentially ignoring one platform entirely, BlackBerry fans might have less reasons to make the switch.

Did T-Mobile Stop Selling BlackBerry Devices? original content from Ubergizmo.