As I say when I’ve missed two buses and three trains only to arrive for the last five minutes of the open bar, better late than never, eh? And so it goes for T-Mobile customers who have been greedily eyeing Apple’s iPhone for the last four years while not being able to buy one compatible with their wireless carrier’s service. It might be late, but it’s not never — the iPhone is officially coming to T-Mobile in 2013 [cue “The Final Countdown” by Europe].

T-Mobile’s German overlords at Deutsche Telekom announced the agreement to sell Apple products next year in a statement released today, says Businessweek.

The company is a bit late to the party, which already includes AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint, but it’s likely executives hope this news will keep it from leaking customers and entice new subscribers. T-Mobile lost about 1.03 million monthly contract customers since the end of last year.

“A certain number of people wouldn’t come to our stores if we didn’t have the iPhone,” T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer John Legere said. “We worked very hard for a deal that made sense for us.”

As experts noted earlier during the iPhone/T-Mobile buzz, the company first had to make sure its wireless network could handle the LTE capabilities of the iPhone 5.

The campaign to hype T-Mobile iPhones will begin soon, added Legere, in an attempt to give the other three major telecom companies a run for their money. To that effect experts think this news means a significant battle for consumers’ dollars could be on the horizon.

“A T-Mobile iPhone is good news for Apple, good news for T-Mobile, and good news for consumers. But it’s bad news for everybody else,” said one analyst quoted by Businessweek. “By `everybody else,’ I mean Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon.”

There’s something about a leveled playing field  (multiple choices, competitive pricing!) that gets us really excited to see what these companies will come up with next. First one to invent the totally invisible and completely weightless phone wins!

Apple IPhone to Be Sold by T-Mobile in 2013 [Businessweek]

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