Author: Dan Graziano

T-Mobile will be the last of the big four wireless carriers in the United States to offer the iPhone when it launches in the next month. The company’s new “UNcarrier” initiative could make it an appealing choice for consumers looking for a contract-free plan. Horace Dediu of Asymco estimates that T-Mobile could sell about 3.4 million iPhones in 2013, totaling 10% of its subscriber base. The analyst’s sales numbers are based off trends from AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S), along with the percentage of total subscribers that each operator has been activating. Dediu notes that the sales patterns are consistent across all carriers and that the longer the iPhone is is available, the higher the activation rate. He estimates that iPhone sales across all four major carriers will reach 53 million in 2013, accounting for 17% of 320 million subscribers, an increase from 14% in 2012.

Earlier this week, T-Mobile CEO John Legere revealed that his company would be the first carrier to offer Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy S 4 smartphone in the United States. T-Mobile will launch the smartphone on May 1st for $99 down and $20 a month for 24 months. Not to be outdone, AT&T (T) on Thursday announced that customers will be able to pre-order the Galaxy S4 beginning on April 16th. The company is offering Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone for $249.99 with a new two-year service agreement. AT&T did not announce a release date for the device, however.

Earlier reports have suggested that Amazon (AMZN) is preparing to launch its long-rumored Kindle smartphone later this year. According to Digitimes, the new device will include a 4.7-inch display, slightly bigger than the 4.3-inch display that the company had originally planned. Amazon is said to have increased the screen size in response to the growing demand for larger devices among consumers. The company has also reportedly been working on “enhancing other specifications of the smartphone,” which may relate to recent reports of manufacturing delays. The Kindle smartphone will presumably run a heavily customized version of Android, similar to the Kindle Fire tablet, and could cost between $100 and $249. The device is expected to be released sometime after June.

The latest version of iOS is reportedly creating problems for a number of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. Apple (AAPL) released iOS version 6.1.3 earlier this month to fix a recent vulnerability that allowed unauthorized users to bypass a device’s lock screen — an issue that is ongoing. To make matters worse, some users are now reporting that the latest update is causing the battery to drain faster than before while also hurting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. According to CNET, normal fixes such as restoring the device to its factory settings seem to be unsuccessful in resolving the problem. Battery life issues are not uncommon after iOS updates, as users previously reported similar problems with iOS version 6.1 in February.

Samsung (005930) is expected to report another massive quarter despite experiencing a seasonal speed bump, the Yonhap News Agency reported. According to a report from Counterpoint Research, the company was able to achieve record sales during a notoriously slow fiscal quarter and even with the release of its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone looming in the distance. Samsung is estimated to have sold 25 million smartphones per month in 2013 to drive its quarterly sales over 70 million units. 

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BlackBerry (BBRY) included an Android emulator in its BlackBerry 10 operating system that allows developers to easily port their applications from Android to BlackBerry. The decision to include such a tool paid off for the company, which launched its new platform with more than 70,000 apps. BlackBerry recently announced that its app store is now home to more than 100,000 BlackBerry 10 applications, and it has been revealed that only 20% are ported from Android. While the operating system is still missing key apps such as Instagram and Netflix (NFLX), for the most part BlackBerry has been able to attract developers to its still unproven platform.

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HTC’s (2498) J Butterfly, known locally on Verizon as the DROID DNA, has been a hot seller for the company since it debuted last fall in Asia and North America. The smartphone has experienced impressive sales in Japan, even surpassing Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 5 on KDDI’s network in early December, and the company has struggled to keep up with consumer demand. According to Focus Taiwan, Benjamin Ho, HTC’s chief marketing officer, revealed that the company is now planning to release a second-generation Butterfly to capitalize on the smartphone’s success. Earlier rumors suggested that Verizon was preparing a DROID DNA sequel, known as the DROID DNA Plus, although it featured the exact same specs as the HTC One. The executive did not give a timeframe for the second-generation Butterfly smartphone.

Sprint (S) does not offer any Windows Phone 8 devices, however a new report suggests that the carrier will launch two Windows-powered smartphones in the coming months. According to The Verge, the carrier will start offering the HTC (2498) Tiara and Samsung (005930) Ativ S this summer. The unannounced Tiara smartphone is rumored to be a mid-range handset with a 4.3-inch WVGA Super LCD2 display, while the Ativ S offers a 4.8-inch 720p display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, NFC and an 8-megapixel rear camera. Both devices are expected to be available at Sprint stores in May or June.

T-Mobile on Tuesday launched its new 4G LTE network in seven markets, including Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose and Washington DC, with plans to cover more than 100 million people by the middle of 2013 and 200 million customers by the end of the year. The company’s president and CEO, John Legere, also revealed that the high-speed network will go live in New York City “by early summer,” however we were allowed an early hands-on look during the company’s press event. Read on to see how T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network performs.

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T-Mobile formally declared war on rival carriers with the announcement of its new “UNcarrier” initiative at a press event in New York City on Tuesday. John Legere, the company’s president and CEO, called out every major player in the mobile industry but spent extra time bashing AT&T (T). The executive repeatedly pointed out the carrier’s “misleading pricing model” and network quality, claiming customers will save more than $1,000 over the course of two years on T-Mobile, which he also said could handle 50% more bandwidth than AT&T’s network. The carrier was not phased, however.

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A new report suggests that Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone is more “vulnerable” to attacks than Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry (BBRY) smartphones. According to a study from SourceFire, the vast majority of all mobile phone vulnerabilities that have been discovered so far have been found in Apple’s smartphones. The firm found 210 vulnerabilities in the iPhone, giving iOS an 81% share of known mobile phone vulnerabilities, while Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices combined to have a 19% market share.

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Subsidized smartphones, expensive contracts and two-year service agreements have become the norm in the mobile industry, however T-Mobile is looking to shake things up. The company has already rolled out its new contract-free pricing, and is expected to announce new details about its 4G LTE network and may even showcase a full lineup of iPhone devices at its press event in New York City on Tuesday. Can the nation’s fourth largest wireless provider finally set itself apart from Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), Sprint (S) and a handful of smaller carriers? Read on for our live coverage of T-Mobile’s “UNcarrier” press event.

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