Today T-Mobile held its "#unleashthetablet" Un-carrier 3.0 Part II press conference, and just as expected, the big magenta operator had some big tablet news to share.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere today announced the Tablets Un-leashed program, which will see T-Mo offer all of its tablets with a down payment of $0 starting in November. After that, consumers can expect to pay $16 per month for a Nexus 7, which T-Mobile will begin selling on Nov. 20. T-Mo will also offer the iPad mini for $0 down and $18 per month, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for $19 per month, the iPad mini with Retina display for $22 per month and the iPad Air for $26 per month.
T-Mobile also confirmed today that it will offer 200MB of free 4G LTE data per month for the life of a tablet. Once that 200MB is used up, the data flow will stop. T-Mobile voice customers that need more data will be able to pony up $10 per month for unlimited data with 500MB of high-speed data. Any consumer can add sign up for high-speed data plans in 2GB increments for $10 more per month. T-Mobile will also offer short-term data plans, including a daily pass with unlimited data with 500MB of high-speed data for $5 and a weekly pass with 1GB of high-speed data for $10.
Finally, T-Mobile announced that it will launch a tablet trade-in program as part of Tablets Un-leashed. The trade-in service will open up on Nov. 1 and will allow customers to bring their existing tablet into a participating T-Mobile store and use it to receive a discount on a new tablet.
In its announcement of Tablets Un-leashed, T-Mobile cites a recent NPD survey that claimed that nearly 90 percent of tablets purchased are Wi-Fi-only models. This latest Un-carrier 3.0 move is obviously an effort to change that figure, and while 200MB of data may not sound like much, T-Mobile hopes that it's enough for consumers that are interested in a cellular-enabled tablet to dip their toe in the wireless water and discover that they really like having an always-connected slate. Because the promo is open to everyone, though, even those folks that spend most of their time around Wi-Fi could sign up for the 200MB of free monthly data and just subsist on that for the entire time that they own their tablet.
So now that it's officially official, what do you think of T-Mobile's Tablets Un-leashed program? Will you be taking advantage of any of its offers, like the 200MB of free data or the $0 down payment on all new tablets?
Via T-Mobile
