T-Mobile US sells its soul to Google

TMUS is expanding its reliance on Google to deliver digital products, including a premium TV service, to its customers.

This represents a move away from third party digital product providers towards a pure Android experience. So Messages will be the default messaging app, Google One is the ‘preferred’ cloud storage option and, most significantly, YouTube TV will be the premium TV provider. The latter move seems to be, at least in part, a result of the failure of MobiTV, so maybe TMUS decided it might as well go all in on Google while it was at it.

“We’re building on our decade-long relationship with Google to give customers an even better experience with the world’s very best products and services offered by Android, Pixel and YouTube,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “The world’s most popular smartphone platform with Android, a broad range of premium Pixel devices, an upgraded, modern messaging experience on Android and a robust entertainment offering with YouTube TV — it’s the best of Google, combined with the nation’s largest and fastest 5G network on T-Mobile.”

“This is a win for Android users and an even greater win for the Android ecosystem,” said Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Platforms and Ecosystems at Google. “T-Mobile and Google have been working together to champion Android since the very beginning with the launch of the T-Mobile G1 in 2008. We’re taking what has already been a long and very successful relationship, and building on it to bring Android customers even more features and services.”

For ‘Android ecosystem’ read ‘Google’. It’s hard to see this as anything other than an admission by TMUS that any attempt to create a differentiated offering on the top of Android is futile, so it’s given up trying. YouTube TV will be bundled into the expensive ($55 per month) TVision package as TMUS forgoes control of much the user experience of its customers. It’s so much easier to just leave it all to Google.