Verizon may have just landed the iPhone just in time: AT&T just announced that they have passed Verizon as the number on wireless carrier in America, increasing their current subscriber numbers to 95.5 million.
In Q1 2011, 2.8 million new wireless customers joined the network, and data revenue climbed by 27.4 percent compared to the same period a year ago to reach $4.9 billion.
Needless to say, AT&T’s last gasp with iPhone exclusivity had something to do with that: in fact, 4.1 million iPhones were activated in that three month period.
What’s more surprising, though, is just how insignificant the iPad’s contributions to AT&T’s fortunes were. In fact, for the entire quarter, AT&T only racked up 442,000 tablet activations… compared to 7.33 million iPads sold by Apple during last quarter.
Granted, Apple sells iPads internationally, but the 442,000 number takes into account AT&T’s other tablet activations, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Looking at these numbers, it looks like the iPad contributed comparatively little to AT&T’s success this quarter… and, in fact, that the iPad 3G might be significantly less popular than the WiFi-only variety.
