News network CNN has declared T-Mobile as its Tech Company of the Year for 2014. Faced with stiff competition from Apple and Microsoft, CNN posits that “no other tech company shook up its entire industry the way that T-Mobile (TMUS) did this year.”
In 2013, mobile telecom provider T-Mobile shifted its business model, scrapping phone contracts, allowing customers to switch network easily, and introducing free international roaming. This year it went one better, offering to pay early termination fees for customers wanting to move to T-Mobile from another network, introducing free music streaming, independent of existing data plans, offering seven-day smartphone loans, free in-flight internet, and monthly rollover data allowances.
The move kicked off a major price war amongst its rivals, with Sprint offering half-price bills and Verizon and AT&T lowering rates while upping data allowances, with all three now offering free smartphones on contract. But still, T-Mobile has gained 3.5 million customers this year, more than any other mobile network, taking its market share from 11% at the start of the year to 18% now.
To CNN, this remarkable growth and brilliant business strategy has earned T-Mobile the title of Tech Company of the Year, and could point towards the company becoming a long-term success story.
Source: CNN
