We have seen an explosion recently in the choice of smartphones available to consumers, and with this brings lower prices as we now have powerful devices available to us. There are some though that are concerned that subsidizing these smartphones could be jeopardizing the industry.

Chief Marketing Officer of T-Mobile, Cole Brodman, believes the way that the various carriers subsidize the handsets they offer is damaging the industry. Brodman was talking at the GeekWire Summit taking place in Seattle, and said that subsidizing handsets “distorts what devices actually cost” and means consumers are not fully aware of the real value of the hardware being used.

He continued that there are great handsets that have high end specifications such as HD displays, “that get thrown away at 18 months”. Brodman if he had his way would do away with such subsidizes, which was met with some cynicism from others at the event.

Brodman was asked how T-Mobile will cope as the only major carrier in the US not to offer its customers the Apple iPhone. He replied that the company offers some “fantastic” alternatives to subscribers that according to Brodman do things that compete with the iPhone and in many cases “do them better”.

He highlighted T-Mobiles range of Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone handsets that customers have to choose from, and doesn’t think that it is healthy to have one operating system dominating the industry. The Windows Phone platform was mentioned as one to watch and could help balance out the mobile phone industry.

There will be many subscribers that may be looking to leave the carrier just to get their hands on the illustrious iPhone, which was arguably the device that kicked the smartphone market off way back in 2007. Have you recently left T-Mobile to pick up the iPhone?