No iPhone Cause For T-Mo WoesNo iPhone Cause For T-Mo Woes

T-Mobile is a distant fourth place among the largest network operators in the U.S. AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless all best T-Mobile by tens of millions of customers each. T-Mobile USA has been under pressure in recent quarters to retain customers and make up for lost ground to its larger rivals. So far, it hasn't.

Why? Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, said during the company's recent earnings call, "Consumers like T-Mobile, but they also want to have the iPhone."

Obermann implies that T-Mobile would have a better chance at signing up new post-paid customers if it had Apple's popular iPhone, which is still only available from AT&T in the U.S. In fact, AT&T activated more than 5 million iPhones during the third quarter of 2010.

T-Mobile's recent quarterly growth came mostly from its pre-paid -- and not more profitable post-paid -- division.

T-Mobile certainly isn't suffering from a lack of high-end smartphones. It boasts some of the nation's best Android handsets, including the HTC G2 and HTC myTouch 4G -- both of which have speedy HSPA+ on board. It also has the Samsung Vibrant, a highly capable Android device, and starting November 8 it will have the HTC HD7, the newest Windows Phone 7 smartphone.

T-Mobile's network may not have the hearty reputation of Verizon's, but it's not nearly as maligned at AT&T's is, which has been pummeled from customers over quality concerns.

T-Mobile even offers some of the best pricing options in the business.

So is it really fair for Deutsche Telekom to blame the company's lack of growth on the iPhone?