T-Mobile won’t sell the Moto X in any of its US stores at launch, but it is supported by the network

At launch, Motorola’s long-awaited Moto X smartphone won’t be sold in T-Mobile stores across the United States. Mike Sievert, the network operator’s Chief Marketing Officer, confirmed to AllThingsD that the firm has no immediate plans to stock the handset.

The Moto X will be compatible with T-Mobile’s network, however. “The Moto X optimized for T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network will initially be available through Motorola’s channels,” he said. “We do not plan to stock Moto X devices immediately in our stores but are working closely with Motorola to make the Moto X a great experience for T-Mobile customers.”

Motorola announced yesterday that the Moto X would be sold for $199 on-contract across most major carriers in the US, Canada and Latin America.

Most assumed that this included T-Mobile, but that’s not the case. A blog post published on the Motorola site yesterday reads:

“In the US, woven black and woven white models will be available at AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless and at national retailers including Best Buy stores with a suggested retail price of $199 with a new two-year agreement.

Additionally, it will be available on all carriers, including T-Mobile, at Motorola.com.”

Motorola hasn’t confirmed what the off contract price will be, posing further questions as to how T-Mobile will try to sell the handset. Given that the company has made great efforts to separate the price of its devices and call plans, it might simply incentivize users to pick up the latter on its own.

That would essentially remove the need for it to upsell the device – but also rule it out of other T-Mobile promotions, such as its new Jump plan for consumers that want to upgrade early.

Motorola impressed when it claimed to have the full support of all four major carriers in the United States, but given AT&T’s preferential treatment – they’re the only operator that will give subscribers the ability to fully customize their Moto X at launch – cracks are beginning to emerge.