T-Mobile to get Apple iPhone 3GS only?

Wired’s editor in chief, Chris Anderson, has tweeted an odd rumor this week. It goes something like this…

A T-Mobile manager casually mentioned to me that they’re going to get the iPhone 3GS (but not 4, oddly) later this year. Common knowledge?

Seeing as the magazine has not run it themselves as an article it seems more likely that Anderson is floating a rumor he has heard, but has little confidence in.

This seems to us at the moment, to be little more than another of those Verizon / T-Mobile rumors that does the rounds from time to time.

As we’ve reported previously it still seems far more likely to us that Apple is looking to expand in Verizon’s direction with an iPhone 4 retooled for CDMA, but not until next year when the factory outputting those iPhone 4 is online.

Perhaps T-Mobile is a stop gap option if Apple feels under pressure from Androids growth and needs to get onto a network more easily and quickly. Or in the event of production delays with the Verizon iPhone. In that case the iPhone 3GS may be a supply line that is easier to retool, or split.

T-Mobile could be that option because they use the same basic system as AT&T for their wireless, albeit on a different frequency. Not an easy switch. But easier than speeding up production and testing of a CDMA iPhone 4 for Verizon.

Does T-Mobile sound credible to you? Have your say in the comments.

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