Lines Sighted at T-Mobile Retail Stores For $99 iPhone 5

No need to adjust your PC monitor or tablet display (or whatever you're viewing this one), the picture you see below is indeed a T-Mobile store, and yes, that's a line extending out and wrapping around the building. That's quite the unusual sight, though there are reports of lines forming at several T-Mobile retail stores today.

The reason, of course, is because T-Mobile finally and officially joins the iPhone party today. Smartphone shoppers can nab an iPhone 5 starting at $100 down plus $20 per month for 24 months, or fork over a lump sum payment of $580. To sweeten the deal, T-Mobile is offering to let iPhone 4 and 4S owners trade in their existing iOS handset in exchange for a $0 down payment and potentially reduced payments on an iPhone 5, depending on how much their current phone is worth.

T-Mobile Line
Lines form at a T-Mobile store for the $99 iPhone 5. Image Source: Twitter user Walter Piecyk (@piecykw)

This is the first time T-Mobile has offered the iPhone, and it's trying to make the most of it by tempting subscribers of other wireless carriers to switch, and by rolling out new simplified plans. For $50 per month, an individual gets 500MB of data along with unlimited talk and text; $60 per month bumps the data allowance to 2GB, and the $70 plan removes the ceiling altogether. There's no two-year service agreement to sign, though subscribers do have to pay for the phone.

The sight of lines at T-Mobile stores bodes well for both the un-carrier and Apple. There's an opportunity here for T-Mobile to increase its subscriber-base, and for Apple to sell more phones, potentially stealing some market share away from Android.