海角大神

You know how you can test drive a car, take it out for a spin, see if it fits your fancy? Ever wanted to do that with, say, a phone? Well, now you can.聽

Refusing to let Amazon hog all of the tech world's attention this week, T-Mobile announced Wednesday at its Uncarrier 5 event in Seattle a new plan to give users free seven-day trials of the Apple iPhone on the T-Mobile network. The service is aptly called "T-Mobile Test Drive." Users interested in this little test drive can sign up online, receive an iPhone 5S in the mail, use the device (free of charges) for a week, and then return it to a retail store.聽

T-Mobile also announced that streaming music from eight major streaming services, including Spotify and Pandora, will not count against users' monthly data. It will also provide聽its own music-streaming service called "UnRadio," the result of a partnership with music-streaming service Rhapsody. This service will have no ads and no limits on the number of songs that can be skipped for customers with the $80-a-month, unlimited high-speed service plan. All other customers can receive the service for $4 a month.聽

The wireless carrier is the self-branded "Uncarrier" for its聽"Don't play by the rules"聽attitude that includes benefits for consumers, such as no annual service contracts. Per this attitude,聽T-Mobile is trumpeting its data plans as a way to distinguish itself from the competition. At the event, T-Mobile chief executive John Legere聽noted that T-Mobile customers use聽69 percent more data than Verizon, and 100 percent more data than AT&T.聽

"We see ourselves as a mobile Internet company," Mr. Legere said at Wednesday's event.聽

The announcement came just hours after Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos unveiled the new Amazon Fire smart phone 鈥� not a total surprise seeing as Legere makes a habit of taunting his competition on Twitter.聽

For example, of the Amazon phone's exclusive arrangement with AT&T, Legere tweeted Tuesday:聽

Although T-Mobile trails the other three major wireless carriers in the US, it has been making moves in recent years since AT&T tried, and failed, to acquire T-Mobile in 2011.聽That failed acquisition, however, had an upside for T-Mobile 鈥� AT&T paid parent company聽Deutsche Telekom聽$4 billion聽as a break-up fee.聽

In the past year, T-Mobile has seen a boost in subscribers. It added 1.3 million monthly subscribers in the first fiscal quarter of 2013, more than rivals AT&T and Verizon combined, according to Forbes.聽

鈥淎 year ago I promised that we would bring change to what I called this arrogant US wireless industry. We are delivering on that promise and our results reflect the growing customer revolution that we鈥檝e ignited,鈥� Legere said in a statement.聽

Still, the company's stock has dropped 2.9 percent this year, according to Bloomberg. 聽

T-Mobile is聽reportedly in talks to merge with rival Sprint.聽

-Material from Reuters was used in聽this report.聽