In line with analyst speculation from last week, Engadget reports that Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann has just announced at his company's analyst day event that T-Mobile USA will begin selling Apple products in 2013.
The announcement was posted --nearly as an afterthought, oddly enough -- as part of a press release in which Deutsche Telekom spelled out its financial plans through 2015. While the two companies have not explicitly given specifics on which Apple devices we can expect to see in a retail store near you, the timing of the launch will likely correspond with the fourth-largest carrier's LTE launch in 2013.
T-Mobile is currently the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not offer the iPhone, due at least in part to longstanding incompatibilities between Apple's hardware and the spectrum used by T-Mobile for its fastest data networks. The carrier has, however, been working hard to refarm its spectrum to add compatibility for frequencies supported by the iPhone, and it previously stated that it would be ready for the iPhone by the end of 2012. T-Mobile USA will also be rolling out LTE service for its customers in 2013.
Update: Deutsche Telekom's press release is now available.
The higher investment volume is to be used to roll out the broadband infrastructure in Germany and the United States in particular. In the mobile communications network, this will be done using the state-of-the-art technology LTE. Around EUR 6 billion is earmarked for rolling out the broadband infrastructure in the German fixed network with optical fiber and vectoring between 2013 and 2020. In addition, T-Mobile USA has entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market together in 2013.
No further details on exactly which products are included in the deal are available yet, but presumably both the iPhone and iPad will be coming to T-Mobile.
Update 2: Apple has also confirmed to The Loop that it has struck a deal with T-Mobile.
