It’s become a pattern for consumers – word of a new Apple device puts the brakes on purchases of the current version. Verizon Wireless is now seeing that as Apple fans hold off buying the iPhone 4 to wait for the iPhone 5.
Now comes word Verizon iPhone second-quarter sales “will be a touch below” the first three month’s 2.2 million units. That’s according to Goldman Sachs’ analyst Jason Armstrong, after talking with Verizon Communications executives Wednesday. Verizon Wireless began selling the iPhone 4 Feb. 3, a month into the company’s first quarter, notes Bloomberg.
The imminent release of the iPhone 5, expected around September, is causing Verizon customers to balk at locking themselves into a two-year contract for a smartphone that will be outdated in a few months. While sales of iPhones are taking a short breather, the report says purchases of other smartphones “were above the carrier’s expectations.”
However, the brief downturn of Verizon iPhone sales isn’t a respite for Android-based handsets which have plateaued in the United States. Apple’s growth in the U.S. is continuing, while the Google platform began stalling-out by May, Nielsen researchers announced Thursday.
Although Android still leads Apple in the U.S. market, 38 percent to 27 percent, Apple grew from 10 percent to 17 percent of new smartphone purchases, according to the findings. Meanwhile new purchases of Android handsets stayed at 27 percent in May. The Verizon iPhone appears to have been key to Apple’s continued growth.
The research appears to put to rest the belief that Android’s growth in the U.S. was due to increasing demand. Instead, researchers found Android domestic growth hit a roadblock when the Cupertino, Calif. company added a second U.S. carrier, indicating only availability is limiting the iPhone’s growth.
