We know, from their slap-fight with AT&T over one particular customer, that T-Mobile loves Twitter. Their CEO is a hash tagging machine, and their PR crew has a solid presence there. It only seems natural that they’d engage in some kind of cross-promotional deal with the micro-blogging service, and it looks like that’s just what they’ve done.
In an agreement with Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile, Twitter has agreed to “create a unique experience for Deutsche Telekom devices”. It’s believed that, in parts of Europe, T-Mobile Android handsets will come pre-loaded with a Twitter home screen widget. The agreement covers Germany, Romania, Croatia, Greece, and The Netherlands — for now.
In return, T-Mobile’s parent company gets “early access to new tools and innovations on the technical side”, and agrees to do some cross-promotion for Twitter. In their blog post, Deutsche Telekom notes they “will be a preferred partner for Twitter when it comes to innovative marketing, advertising and customer services opportunities on Twitter.” We think this may cross into other realms, with Twiter messages showing up on TV or via other social marketing initiatives like Google+ or Facebook.
With Twitter going public, the heat is on to create new energy for the service. Usage numbers are suspect, with no official statistics given. It’s believed that up to 400 million people use Twitter daily, but other estimates put it much lower. We like the synergy these two aggressive companies could create, and it could spell big things for all of us if the partnership works out well.
