T-Mobile US says it lost 700K+ Subscribers ‘Mainly’ due to iPhone 4S Release

T-Mobile U.S. this week reported disappointing quarterly earnings, and blamed a loss of more than 700,000 customers on Apple’s October introduction of the iPhone 4S.

T-Mobile remains the only major carrier in the U.S. that does not offer Apple’s iPhone. With last year’s launch of the iPhone 4S, Sprint joined AT&T and Verizon, and Apple even added C-Spire, a smaller, regional U.S. carrier.

“The decline in branded net contract customers was driven primarily by higher branded contract deactivation’s as a result of the launch of the iPhone 4S by three nationwide competitors in mid-October,” T-Mobile said in its report.

Without the iPhone, T-Mobile lost 706,000 contract customers in the fourth quarter of 2011. Fun fact, Apple’s iPhone was mentioned a total of seven times in a press release issued by T-Mobile, more than any phone that the carrier actually does offer.

“Not carrying the iPhone led to a significant increase in contract deactivation’s in the fourth quarter of 2011,” T-Mobile USA President and CEO Phillipp Humm said.

Service revenues were down 2.7 percent year over year to $4.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, due primarily to customer losses.