Do you live in Seattle and own an iPhone? If you answered yes to both, you are eligible to participate in T-Mobile’s Seattle Speed Challenge. This weekend the carrier is encouraging iOS devotees to bring their phones into participating stores to race the Galaxy S 4G smartphone. If you can download information faster on your iPhone, you win, and you get more than just Apple fanboy cred: T-Mobile will give you $1,000.
Unless they know something we don’t, odds are not in the iPhone users’ favor. Verizon and Apple iPhones both run on 3G networks. The side-by-side comparison will show the phones downloading files, and the Galaxy S 4G will be the likely victor: The new Android phone is capable of downloads of 21 Mb/s. The iPhone 4 maxes out at downloads of 7.2 Mb/s. It doesn’t take much to see through the extremely thin veil of T-Mobile’s plan–get them in the store, show off the phone, talk up the 4G service. What’s more amusing about the publicity stunt than anything else is that T-Mobile is directly challenging what could be its future home, seeing as AT&T is in the midst of acquiring the network…or at least attempting to.
To enter, all you need to do is show up at one of the 10 participating stores, be 18 years of age, bring your iPhone, and be sure to turn off your Wi-Fi. If you’re iPhone bests the Galaxy S 4G on two out of three tests, the $1,000 is yours. Here’s a list of the participating T-Mobile retailers:
- Downtown Seattle
- Factoria Village (formerly Loehmann’s Plaza)
- Bellevue Square
- Redmond Town Center
- Aurora Ave. N. & 135th St.
- 45th & Stone Way
- NW 85th St. & 15th Ave. NW
- Lake City Way NE & NE 125th
- Bothell & 208th St.
- Northgate Mall
Let us know if you’re brave enough to put your iPhone through the humiliation.
