If it’s one thing CEO of T-Mobile John Legere is not, it’s short for words. The outspoken, often crass Legere spoke out on his T-Mobile blog about a great many things, including the competition, wearables, phablets and Apple Watch 2015. Legere broke out some predictions concerning the wireless industry saying the wireless “revolution” is moving ahead at “warp speed.” He also created a chart with key points where T-Mobile has excelled beyond their competitors.
He went on to discuss network speeds and was very proud that customers were comparing T-Mobile speed test results against Verizon Wireless and coming out on top. Legere says the other wireless carriers “will continue to bumble along,” briefly describing what AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will do to become “worse” carriers. We’ve heard this type of PR talk and promotion from Legere many times, but this time he finally moved on to wearables and phablets, which is where his blog post got interesting. Legere believes that phablet sales will continue to grow (by 50%) pushing tablet sales further down the ladder. Legere also believes that wearables will finally take off with the introduction of the Apple Watch, pushing the market to a $20 billion dollar payday.
Wearables and phablets will be the big device stories of 2015 (and maybe some connected cars!)
I love what Jawbone, Fitbit, Samsung, LG, Microsoft and others are doing in the wearables space. But we haven’t begun to see the potential of this category. It’s going to go from $1 to $20 billion in the next few years. And though we won’t see its full impact in 2015, I believe that the Apple Watch will mark the tipping point when wearables go from niche to mainstream.At the same time, phablet sales will continue to sky rocket – up at least 50%. This will have a couple of important side effects. First, phablets will continue to cannibalize the tablet market, and second, the rise of phablets – which are made for data hounds – will continue to fuel the exponential growth in mobile data use. And, of course, T-Mobile customers – who use the most data – will continue to lead the pack in mobile data use.
I think Legere is spot-on with his thoughts on phablets. The demand for phablets has increased with Samsung’s Note line really leading the way since the start and Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus jumping into the fray. People are finding less need for a 9″ tablet when they can do nearly everything on their 6″ phablet. I also think Legere is correct in his wearable prediction. The wearables market will grow big in 2015 as will the revenue stream. While I agree to an extent that the Apple Watch will be a tipping point for wearables, I don’t think it will be “the best” out there. To be fair, Legere didn’t actually say that in his post, but many people will try and make that connection. Apple has a great ability to “mainstream” things, and that’s where the “tipping point” comes in. If Apple makes it, the market listens.
It’s going to be an interesting year for consumer technology. What do you think of Legere’s comments? Let us know in the comments section below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/issues-insights-blog/2015-predictions.htm?AID=11031750&PID=6147232&SID=1wxztib58iyd7″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: T-Mobile Blog[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
