The officially unofficial skinny on the T-Mobile Galaxy S III split Launch

If you are a T-mobile customer like I am, then the news of a split launch for the Samsung Galaxy S III yesterday probably got under your skin. Especially if you don’t live anywhere near the top 29 markets to get the device tomorrow. The release information was a bit sketchy and didn’t give us a clear-cut answer to many burning questions, like which colors and memory options would be available and when. Thankfully we have friend out there that are on the inside who sneak screenshots out to appease those questions and keep people in the know, unlike T-Mobile corporate does. You can check out the image above for details, but it is broken down a bit below.

National Retail Launches: Limited inventory at Walmart and Costco beginning June 21st at all locations

T-Mobile.com June 21st: Pebble Blue in 16 and 32GB sizes, only Pebble Blue ships at launch, Marble White in 16GB and 32GB launch details are to-be-determined

myT-Mobile.com: Target is June 27th for availability , pending inventory levels

Telesales: Said to have â€œhigherâ€ levels of inventory

So it looks like the Pebble blue in both 16GB and 32Gb will launch tomorrow via T-Mobile.com, Walmart and Costco with both variants of the Marble White still to be announced. If you are planning to hit F5 repeatedly in your myTmobile account and get an order placed, you are out of luck until June 27th. All of this information is in addition to the availability in the top 29 markets listed earlier.

On to pricing. The announcement of the S III availability also pushed out pricing guidelines for the device on the semi big Magenta carrier. Let me tell you, no one is really happy about it. Pricing landed for all 4 other carriers and made a big splash, T-Mobile pricing on the other hand is a bit higher. The 16GB pebble blue version is priced at $229.99 down and $20 a month on value plans and $279.99 on a classic plan with contract after Â $50 mail-in rebate. Yes, that is about $80 more than everyone else even after the rebate.

What one needs to consider though is the bottom line. T-Mobile really tries to push service and rate plans as their dominating appeal factor. One might spend more for a new top end device, but in the long run you do end up saving quite a bit. In my situation for instance I have 3 lines on my family plan, 1000 minutes, unlimited SMS, and 2GB of data on two phones. My bill is never over $100. I would much rather spend a little more on a device and keep my monthly statement low, then save an extra $80 on the phone and spend hundreds more in service. I was shooting for the 32GB model myself, but without seeing pricing and assuming it will be much more, I might have to settle for 16GB.

What do you guys think? Will T-Mobile make a final change to their pricing to line up more with what everyone else is doing, or will they keep it a bit higher and hope for the best?

Source: Tmonews