The Motley Fool‘s Sam Mattera argues in this post today that customers of T-Mobile “don’t like Apple’s iPhone” as much as users with other carriers. The iPhone accounted for only 21 percent of T-Mobile smartphone activations during the most recent quarter, Mattera writes, while 51 percent of the smartphones sold by Verizon Wireless during that period sported Apple’s brand.

Why the discrepancy? Mattera concludes that handset subsidies “make customers less price sensitive” to the substantial cost of new smartphones, and T-Mobile’s move to dump subsidies make it harder for the carrier to sell high-end devices. And Mattera argues that the installment plan T-Mobile uses in lieu of subsidies means that the price of monthly service varies significantly based on the cost of the handset. That stands in contrast to traditional plans, of course, where the upfront cost of the handset varies but the monthly bill is the same regardless of device.

Mattera may have something of a point there, but I think there are much bigger factors at play. I believe users willing to spend for a top-line gadget like the iPhone want the solid nationwide coverage Verizon has become known for, and are more willing to pay for that coverage than users with less expensive handsets. I think T-Mobile is also well positioned to capitalize on the iPhone C, which is beginning to close the sales gap with the 5S. And perhaps most important is the fact that T-Mobile has sold the iPhone for only a few months now, so it has no base of iPhone users looking to upgrade to newer models. I’ll be very surprised if the iPhone gap between Verizon and T-Mobile isn’t much smaller in the next 12 to 18 months.