AT&T announced their quarterly earnings this morning, revealing that the carrier activated 3.7 million iPhones (22 percent of which went to new customers), and that the iPhone made up a whopping 73% of the carrier’s total iPhone sales.
From the press release:
AT&T sold 5.1 million smartphones in the second quarter. Smartphones represented 77 percent of postpaid device sales. At the end of the quarter, 61.9 percent, or 43.1 million, of AT&T’s postpaid subscribers had smartphones, up from 49.9 percent, or 34.1 million, a year earlier.
AT&T’s ARPU for smartphones is twice that of non-smartphone subscribers, and about 88 percent of smartphone subscribers are on FamilyTalk or business plans. Churn levels for these subscribers are significantly lower than for other postpaid subscribers. More than one-third of AT&T’s postpaid smartphone customers use a 4G-capable device.
Further, smartphones in general accounted for 77 percent of AT&T’s total post-paid device sales, giving the iPhone a very significant 55% of the carrier’s total mobile phone sales for the entire quarter.
The report comes amid concerns that demand for the iPhone may be slowing as consumers anticipate Apple’s next-gen iPhone, which is expected to be released sometime this fall – but the fact that the iPhone is still so dominant at AT&T 9 months after their latest iPhone release may diminish those concerns.
By contrast, the iPhone made up 45% of Verizon’s quarterly smartphone sales. Apple will report their quarterly earnings this afternoon, which should provide an even better indication of total quarterly iPhone sales.
