AT&T: 74% of Our New ‘Integrated’ Phones Are iPhones
iPhones comprised nearly three out of every four new cell phones activated with 3G and a QWERTY keyboard, according to AT&T’s quarterly statement. The carrier said it activated 3.2 million iPhones during the quarter – up from 2.4 million iPhones last spring.
Overall, AT&T added 4.3 million “integrated devices” during the quarter out of a total of 81.6 million cell phone customers the carrier now claims. Although rival Verizon has yet to announce officially, the new AT&T numbers appear to narrow the gap to a 6.1 million advantage for Verizon. Verizon has recently launched an advertising salvo against the iPhone, promoting its Android 2.0-based ‘Droid’ expected to be introduced in early November.
Apple’s exclusive U.S. carrier also announced nearly 40 percent of those new iPhone customers are also new to AT&T, an increase from 33 percent reported earlier this year.
Although AT&T has complained the iPhone has been a drain on finances, the carrier reported data revenue grew 33.6 percent with wireless revenue jumping 10 percent to $12.4 billion. Additionally, AT&T announced profit margins rose to 38.5 percent from 33.5 percent and average revenue per person grew 3.8 percent.
- Via Gizmodo and Electronista
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
