A new report shows T-Mobile, and its prepaid MetroPCS service has moved past Sprint and its prepaid brands to take third-place in the U.S. wireless carrier standings for the volume of smartphones purchased in the first quarter.
According to Counterpoint’s Market Monitor, T-Mobile is now closely behind AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) in terms of smartphones. Counterpoint’s Neil Shah, a former analyst with Strategy Analytics, wrote in a post that T-Mobile’s “uncarrier” strategy “is surely working for the carrier, attracting a wave of new smartphone subscribers.” In the first quarter T-Mobile launched a program to pay off the Early Termination Fees of customers who switch to T-Mobile and traded in their phones, which could have boosted the carrier’s numbers.
Sprint reported retail smartphone sales of just under 5 million during the first quarter of 2014, while T-Mobile reported record sales, pushing 6.9 million smartphones out the door.
Other stats from the report show three-quarters of the smartphones shipped in the quarter were LTE capable handsets, with Apple and Samsung capturing 70% of the LTE handset action.
