Verizon sells 2.7M iPhones in Q2, smartphone penetration hits 50%
Half of all mobile subscribers at Verizon Wireless, the largest cellular provider in the U.S., are now smartphone users, thanks in part to sales of 2.7 million iPhones in the second quarter.
Smartphone penetration in the quarter was up 13.8 percentage points from the same period a year ago, when just 36 percent of Verizon subscribers had a smartphone. It also grew 3 points from the first quarter of 2012, the company revealed on Thursday.
Total sales of Apple's iPhone through Verizon Wireless were 2.7 million units, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo revealed. In comparison, Verizon sold 2.9 million Android-based smartphones, and 2.5 million of those were 4G LTE handsets.
Sales of the iPhone at Verizon were up from 2.3 million in the same quarter a year ago. But sales were also down from the 3.2 million iPhones activated in the first quarter, as customers begin to hold off on buying a new iPhone in anticipation of a new model from Apple expected to arrive later this year.
Shammo also revealed that a quarter of iPhone sales from the second quarter were customers who were new to the carrier. That's higher than the 20 percent of 4G LTE customers who were new to Verizon.
Verizon sells Apple's latest-generation handset, the iPhone 4S, as well as the iPhone 4. The iPhone 3GS, which first launched in 2009 and is still sold for free with a new two-year service plan, is only available through Verizon's chief rival, AT&T.
Analyst Christopher M. Larsen with Piper Jaffray said Verizon's second-quarter results were positive, as the carrier added 888,000 net retail postpaid wireless subscribers. The company's adjusted earnings per share of 64 cents was about in line with the Wall Street consensus.
Smartphone penetration in the quarter was up 13.8 percentage points from the same period a year ago, when just 36 percent of Verizon subscribers had a smartphone. It also grew 3 points from the first quarter of 2012, the company revealed on Thursday.
Total sales of Apple's iPhone through Verizon Wireless were 2.7 million units, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo revealed. In comparison, Verizon sold 2.9 million Android-based smartphones, and 2.5 million of those were 4G LTE handsets.
Sales of the iPhone at Verizon were up from 2.3 million in the same quarter a year ago. But sales were also down from the 3.2 million iPhones activated in the first quarter, as customers begin to hold off on buying a new iPhone in anticipation of a new model from Apple expected to arrive later this year.
Shammo also revealed that a quarter of iPhone sales from the second quarter were customers who were new to the carrier. That's higher than the 20 percent of 4G LTE customers who were new to Verizon.
Verizon sells Apple's latest-generation handset, the iPhone 4S, as well as the iPhone 4. The iPhone 3GS, which first launched in 2009 and is still sold for free with a new two-year service plan, is only available through Verizon's chief rival, AT&T.
Analyst Christopher M. Larsen with Piper Jaffray said Verizon's second-quarter results were positive, as the carrier added 888,000 net retail postpaid wireless subscribers. The company's adjusted earnings per share of 64 cents was about in line with the Wall Street consensus.
Comments
If people held off buying iPhones in Q2, Q3 is going to be even worse. Lets hope Apple gets the next one out before the end of Q3 (of verizon's fiscal year)...
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
But sales were also down from the 3.2 million iPhones activated in the first quarter, as customers begin to hold off on buying a new iPhone in anticipation of a new model from Apple expected to arrive later this year.
Kind of a big presumption and not a fact. Maybe customers simply bought something else (since Android was 2.9 million)? Or this quarter just isn't a high renewal period? There's no facts to back up this part of the article.
Not sure why you would pick on that comment. They have quite a few precedents to look at I would have thought. Hasn't a drop in sales always happened in the run up to a new iPhone release or iPad, iPod, or MacBook Pro? Can you point to an example of where sales remained unchanged or increased just prior to a release of a new version of any Apple product in the last decade?
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Not sure why you would pick on that comment. They have quite a few precedents to look at I would have thought. Hasn't a drop in sales always happened in the run up to a new iPhone release or iPad, iPod, or MacBook Pro? Can you point to an example of where sales remained unchanged or increased just prior to a release of a new version of any Apple product in the last decade?
I don't have to and that's not the point. If this is a news article explaining a drop a sales of an item there should be a fact explaining either YoY smartphone sales to understand the trend, or a survey to say people are waiting or something. To just say people are waiting as the sole answer for a quarterly drop in sales may be true, but it's devoid of any further evidence making it an opinion or gross assumption at best, especially in the face of reported higher Android sales during the same period.
Apple is DOOMED! Why do guys like you always see the glass half empty? And why do you always fret about Android device sales vs iPhone sales when developers clearly prefer iOS over Android? Meanwhile AAPL is worth more than MSFT + GOOG combined. Sales, revenue, and profit exceed that of the Apple Killers too. But Apple is always on the brink of total annihilation isn't it, just one quarter away from certain death?
Tim Cook doesn't seem to be worried. Why are you?
Proof that this depression is intentional.
Why?
Economy is about selling and buying. Stop the Austerity crap until the unemployment is down enough, austerity is killing the small biz.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkrupp
Apple is DOOMED! Why do guys like you always see the glass half empty? And why do you always fret about Android device sales vs iPhone sales when developers clearly prefer iOS over Android? Meanwhile AAPL is worth more than MSFT + GOOG combined. Sales, revenue, and profit exceed that of the Apple Killers too. But Apple is always on the brink of total annihilation isn't it, just one quarter away from certain death?
Tim Cook doesn't seem to be worried. Why are you?
Apple is quite far from doomed. That crap is worth easily ignoring. The iPhone gets extra scrutiny these days because of 2 reasons: first the giant share of revenue and profits it makes up for Apple now, and 2 because of the hotly contested market it's in. Verizon has never been a good barometer for iPhone sales anyhow, despite being the largest US carrier, AT&T is.
I guess I'd better ask for proof in any article mentioning winter will follow fall this year, can't be letting them get away with that can we? /smile
From Q4 2011 to Q1 2012 - Verizon iPhone sales went from 4.2 million to 3.2 million or a drop of 24%. This quarter the drop is 16%. Total iPhone sales went from 37 million in Q4 2011 (calendar) to 35 million is Q1 2012 or a drop of 5.4%. For this quarter, best analyst expect a drop of 10% and Wall street is modeling a drop of 16%. Seems to me Apple's quarter will be just fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I wonder what the penetration would be if Apple had never released an iPhone?
Oh, I am sure it would be the same for something that we probably will have called a "smartphone"
But it will likely have been make by RIM and Nokia, with some luddite, low-tech clickety-clack interface. We'd probably still be restricted to websites ending with an ".m" and the phrase "App Store" would have generated a quizzical look.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thataveragejoe
I don't have to and that's not the point. If this is a news article explaining a drop a sales of an item there should be a fact explaining either YoY smartphone sales to understand the trend, or a survey to say people are waiting or something. To just say people are waiting as the sole answer for a quarterly drop in sales may be true, but it's devoid of any further evidence making it an opinion or gross assumption at best, especially in the face of reported higher Android sales during the same period.
The only reason why the sales of any Apple product ever go down is because people are waiting to buy the next model.
It is never because Apple has fallen behind the newer stuff from other manufacturers.
/AppleThink
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerrySwitched26
The only reason why the sales of any Apple product ever go down is because people are waiting to buy the next model.
It is never because Apple has fallen behind the newer stuff from other manufacturers.
/AppleThink
If you have any data at all to back that up -- rather than your standard trolled-out opinion -- please feel free to share it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerrySwitched26
The only reason why the sales of any Apple product ever go down is because people are waiting to buy the next model.
It is never because Apple has fallen behind the newer stuff from other manufacturers.
/AppleThink
And yet barely three Apple smartphone models outsell everything else the rest of the year. That is, it takes an ocean of Android flotsam and jetsam to match and barely surpass Apple's measly 3 phones.
Apple can sell 3 phones and command well-over 30% share. All under one roof. And Apple doesn't need to drastically change the OS to do this. iOS is *that* good. It's *that* effective.
Google has to whore out their OS to everyone and their dog, vomit hundreds of models of phones all over the market, at all price-points, ranging form the good, to the bad, to the downright ugly, *just* to get what amounts to less than double of Apple's share.
Oh, and:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57398726-37/iphone-again-scores-top-spot-at-customer-satisfaction/
Every year.
/PerspectiveThink
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianloftus
From Q4 2011 to Q1 2012 - Verizon iPhone sales went from 4.2 million to 3.2 million or a drop of 24%. This quarter the drop is 16%. Total iPhone sales went from 37 million in Q4 2011 (calendar) to 35 million is Q1 2012 or a drop of 5.4%. For this quarter, best analyst expect a drop of 10% and Wall street is modeling a drop of 16%. Seems to me Apple's quarter will be just fine.
It's weird that you would compare Q4 11 to Q1 12. Normally, wouldn't they compare Q4 11 to Q4 10? When you sell physical items, there is bound to be some sort of pattern (holidays, summer slowdowns), so comparing one quarter from the last might not get you the best results.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryanl
It's weird that you would compare Q4 11 to Q1 12. Normally, wouldn't they compare Q4 11 to Q4 10? When you sell physical items, there is bound to be some sort of pattern (holidays, summer slowdowns), so comparing one quarter from the last might not get you the best results.
Depends on what you are trying to accomplish and what data is available. If Verizon had a multi-year history of selling the iPhone, and last years iPhone 4S had been released around the same time of the year as the iPhone 4 the year before, then that would make sense. But since Verizon does not have a history of multiple years with the iPhone and there was about 15 months between iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, I do not think a year to year comparisons would be useful. But feel free to make your own comparisons.
Let's face it, the so-called "smartphone" is the future of phones and Apple called it first.
the dropoff in sales was due to the fact that everyone is waiting for a thinner phone. That must be it. Isn't that the major factor in our decisions to buy a phone? It must be from all the comments from the pundits, first thing is the thickness of the phone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
Let's face it, the so-called "smartphone" is the future of phones and Apple called it first.
Apple didn't call it first, but they did follow through and act on it first.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304388004577531002591315494.html
As with other technologies that may have started life elsewhere, Apple thought differently about what a touch interface could do and made it work in an elegant and useful way.
It's interesting that a designer realized what Nokia had in its hands, but the carriers and investors ultimately worked against continued development of the platform.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmantle
the dropoff in sales was due to the fact that everyone is waiting for a thinner phone. That must be it. Isn't that the major factor in our decisions to buy a phone? It must be from all the comments from the pundits, first thing is the thickness of the phone.
Apparently the upcoming LG K8-MO55 promises to be the thinnest yet.