Carrier AT&T, which had a multi-year exclusivity on iPhone sales in the United States, this morning posted its third-quarter earnings, reporting it activated 4.7 million iPhones, representing more than three out of four smartphones activated on its network during the quarter. The number represents approximately a 178 percent increase over the year-ago quarter, when it activated 2.7 million iPhones.
AT&T attributed poor postpaid performance to the impact of constrained inventory of the iPhone 5:
Postpaid results were impacted by iPhone 5 inventory constraints which resulted in the vast majority of third-quarter iPhone sales going to existing customers, where there was considerable pent-up demand. Prepaid net adds were 77,000, connected device net adds were 313,000 and reseller net adds were 137,000.
The carrier recorded“record sales quarter”for Android and Windows smartphones as well, though it remains primarily the iPhone company.
Here’s Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO-AT&T Mobility, taking us through the earnings report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GQxUGphMRs
Verizon last week postedits Q3 earnings, reporting sales of 3.1 million iPhones with nearly one out of each five smartphone sales being the latest iPhone 5, or approximately 650,000 units. Verizon activated 6.8 million smartphones in the third quarter and Android devices accounted for 3.4 million smartphone activations.
Sprint will report its earnings on Thursday.
Apple tomorrow is scheduled to report its earnings for the September quarter, which will include opening weekend iPhone 5 sales thattopped five million units.
