iPhone Cost T-Mobile Huge Number Of Customers, Say Reports

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While T-Mobile was quick to play up their battle plans this morning, as our own Robert Nelson brought to our attention this morning, one thing that was notably absent from the upbeat futurism was just what happened to them in the previous quarter. And as it turns out, T-Mobile’s ambitious future plans seem to be at least partially powered by a truly hideous hiding they got at the hands of Apple with its iPhone 4S launch.

Basically, according to the word direct from T-Mobile USA’s President and CEO Phillipp Humm, the fact that T-Mobile didn’t offer the iPhone 4S at launch cost them fully 706,000 contract customers in the closing days of 2011. Considering that they were pretty much the only major carrier that didn’t have the iPhone 4S on hand–and considering that even some smaller companies you’ve never heard of like C-Spire got in on the iPhone feeding frenzy–it’s clear that the iPhone was, as we could all sort of figure, a big deal.

And suddenly, this makes the entire “Reinvigorated Challenger Strategy” that T-Mobile brought out earlier today make a whole lot more sense than it did going in. See, they’re not playing the “Reinvigorated Challenger” card because they’re the fourth-place grappler behind AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, they’re playing the card because they just got kicked in the metaphorical teeth by Apple and its newest phone. At least, that’s a possible explanation, though it does cover the waterfront rather nicely.

It makes no small amount of sense, mind you, that T-Mobile would be looking to do some serious investment in its infrastructure to help shore its numbers up; when you lose almost a million people to most every one of your competitors–and some companies you didn’t even consider competitors until recently–you start looking at how you can get your company out of the shadow of pretty much everybody else. But as we’ve seen from the earlier details of the Reinvigorated Challenger Strategy , it may not be enough to carry T-Mobile out of the hole.

But what do you guys think? Can T-Mobile recover from the hit it’s taken? Or do you figure that this may be the beginning of the end? No matter what you think, head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!