Sprint announced its fourth quarter 2012 earnings on Thursday, reporting that it sold a company best-ever 2.2 million iPhones, selling a total of 6.6 million for the year 2012.
Of the 2.2 million iPhones sold in the December quarter, 38 percent of those were to new customers. And 40 percent of the 6.6 million iPhones sold in all of 2012 were to customers new to the carrier.
Sprint sold a total of almost 20 million smartphones in 2012. 89% of postpaid handset sales in the fourth quarter were smartphones.
Sprint reported a net loss of $1.3 billion for the quarter, attributing part of that loss to subsidies associated with the iPhone, which Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse says is one of the company’s “key investments.”
Sprint’s 4G LTE network, compatible with the iPhone 5 and the latest models of iPads, is available in 58 cities. The carrier plans to expand to nearly 170 more in the coming months, and construction has started in 450 cities.
