Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL): T-Mobile discontinues the use of the iPhone image for marketing

T-Mobile recently removed the picture of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone from a campaign which urges people to get their iPhones unlocked by the network. T-Mobile, which is a branch of Deutsche Telekom AG recently removed the image from their campaign, thereby drawing interest to itself, regarding conflict with Apple.

The campaign asked people to get their phones unlocked at the AT&T stores, and bring them to T-Mobile so that they can use the network. This deal was made more attractive by a $50 savings which the customers would make on their phone bills, which are monthly. In the campaign poster, the iPhone was put beneath an open padlock, to symbolize the unlocking bit. And the advertisement was quite prominently put up in the network stores all over the place. While a large number of people, about one million, use the network of T-Mobile on their phones, the carrier is one of the only major ones which do not actually sell the phones at their stores. They have also admitted that this is one of the reasons for them not getting many customers. The smartphone is made for the AT&T network, but once unlocked, it can also run with the T-Mobile network.

A spokesperson from the network company said that there was nothing personal regarding the removal of the picture of the iPhone, other than the fact that the marketing was moving forward, and that the image was mainly used to attract people to the store during the launch of the iPhone. It was pandering to the hype of the phone, and how much people wanted it. The company also mentioned that they had not been in touch with Apple on the basis of the marketing.

A blog posted an internal directive by T-Mobile which bluntly stated that the iPhone names and images could no longer be used for marketing. To which the spokesperson clarified that despite the message being very blunt and appearing to be harsh, it was simply marketing. Despite the iPhone working on the T-Mobile network, certain functions get skewered. This is due to differences in network frequencies.