Briefly: Verizon pulls away from AT&T, Apple philanthropy

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014


AT&T announced a significant quarterly loss as a result of a failed T-Mobile takeover and is now adding fewer new customers than rival Verizon Wireless, while Apple extends its charitable matching program to include part-time employees.



Verizon pulling ahead of AT&T



Verizon strengthened its position as the number one mobile carrier in the U.S. based on subscribership as the company announced a 7.7 percent rise in overall revenue to end the fourth quarter of 2011, with even bigger earnings seen by its wireless arm's $18.3 billion in revenue which represented a 13 percent rise year-to-year, reports The Wall Street Journal.



AT&T, on the other hand, reported a $6.68 billion loss for the quarter after a late-2011 pullout from a planned T-Mobile deal, though overall revenue rose 3.6 percent to $32.5 billion. The telecom activated a record 7.6 million iPhones over the holiday quarter, accounting for over 80 percent of all of the company's smartphone sales, however a bulk of those were to existing customers.



The new data makes it clear that AT&T is losing the customer sign-up battle even though it saw a 79 percent bump from the year ago period with 717,000 new users. Verizon's new subscribership eclipsed AT&T's numbers and added 1.2 million contract subscribers during the same period.





Verizon headquarters in Irving, Texas







Verizon now serves 108.7 million subscribers compared to AT&T's 103.2 million users.



Apple charitable matching



Apple announced via Twitter from its Apple Retail Workers account that the company is expanding its charitable matching program to include part-time workers.



The program, first introduced by CEO Tim Cook in September 2011, calls for Apple to match employee non-profit donations dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000 a year. Originally, the plan was limited to full-time U.S. workers, but Cook promised that it would soon expand to other countries.











According to the most recent statistics regarding the gift matching initiative released in November, Apple and its employees raised $2.6 million.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Interesting that Verizon has more new accounts but AT&T is still selling more iPhones despite AT&T and Verizon both having the 4S at the same time. We'll probably need another year before we can see any trend to or away from the iPhone on Verizon as a percentage of smartphones sold.
  • Reply 2 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    Interesting that Verizon has more new accounts but AT&T is still selling more iPhones despite AT&T and Verizon both having the 4S at the same time. We'll probably need another year before we can see any trend to or away from the iPhone on Verizon as a percentage of smartphones sold.



    I find it odd that the iPhone numbers aren't that close between AT&T and Verizon... considering the lecture I got on statistics not that long ago.



    Being that AT&T has a few more years with the iPhone than Verizon I'd say we'll need more than a year before a trend emerges, just to let contracts end etc..
  • Reply 3 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    I find it odd that the iPhone numbers aren't that close between AT&T and Verizon... considering the lecture I got on statistics not that long ago.



    Being that AT&T has a few more years with the iPhone than Verizon I'd say we'll need more than a year before a trend emerges, just to let contracts end etc..



    The numbers won't converge, because AT&T existing smartphone customers have always been dominated by iPhone users, and they'd usually want to stick to iPhones when they upgrade, since they can keep their Apps intact etc. Verizon, on the other hand, have a lot more Android users, and they'd be more willing to just upgrade to another Android device. Plus VZ iPhone isn't as good as AT&T's anyway, with no data/voice same time for 3G and slower 3G speed.
  • Reply 4 of 19
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    I find it odd that the iPhone numbers aren't that close between AT&T and Verizon... considering the lecture I got on statistics not that long ago.



    Being that AT&T has a few more years with the iPhone than Verizon I'd say we'll need more than a year before a trend emerges, just to let contracts end etc..



    Verizon Sold 15 Million Android Phones and 10.8 Million iPhones in 2011.



    Has more android users then iPhone users.



    Many are grandfathered to unlimited data which includes unlimited and unthrottled LTE unlike ATT's unlimited which is being throttled at around 2.4 GB.



    Despite unable to make calls and do data on the verizon iphone, drop calls are less.



    With the CEO of verizon stating that new devices have to have an LTE radio, we will most likely see an iphone with LTE
  • Reply 5 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    Verizon Sold 15 Million Android Phones and 10.8 Million iPhones in 2011.



    Has more android users then iPhone users.



    Many are grandfathered to unlimited data which includes unlimited and unthrottled LTE unlike ATT's unlimited which is being throttled at around 2.4 GB.



    Despite unable to make calls and do data on the verizon iphone, drop calls are less.



    With the CEO of verizon stating that new devices have to have an LTE radio, we will most likely see an iphone with LTE



    Keep in mind you CAN stream DATA & VOICE at the same time on Verizons 4g/Lte.

    As this uses an addtional card for data transfer and rates. I get 30 mbs per second in my neighberhood where a few blocks away at&t does not work period. Youll be seeing this on apple this year.
  • Reply 6 of 19
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Interesting. I would have thought that having the "free" 3GS would help their numbers some...
  • Reply 7 of 19
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    Interesting that Verizon has more new accounts but AT&T is still selling more iPhones despite AT&T and Verizon both having the 4S at the same time. We'll probably need another year before we can see any trend to or away from the iPhone on Verizon as a percentage of smartphones sold.



    Not really. As the article says for ATT, "a bulk of those were to existing customers" and as I posted on the previous article, ATT is selling iPhones to people who already have iPhones. They are simply upgrading. So ATT gets an iPhone sale but they don't get a new customer. Simple, really.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    I find it odd that the iPhone numbers aren't that close between AT&T and Verizon... considering the lecture I got on statistics not that long ago.



    Being that AT&T has a few more years with the iPhone than Verizon I'd say we'll need more than a year before a trend emerges, just to let contracts end etc..



    I would not expect the situation to change for at least two more years. The 4S was the first really robust sales of iPhones for Verizon, so as those folks start coming off their contracts in two years, you'll see Verizon's numbers start to look more like ATT's in that a higher % of sales will be to existing customers.
  • Reply 8 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post


    Interesting. I would have thought that having the "free" 3GS would help their numbers some...



    If the 4 became a non contract phone then we might see a jump... might. Interesting numbers, though.
  • Reply 9 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by theobold View Post


    Keep in mind you CAN stream DATA & VOICE at the same time on Verizons 4g/Lte.

    As this uses an addtional card for data transfer and rates. I get 30 mbs per second in my neighberhood where a few blocks away at&t does not work period. Youll be seeing this on apple this year.



    You will also see a lot more nation-wide network outages on Verizon's 4G-LTE. They had 4 just this past December.
  • Reply 10 of 19
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by noexpectations View Post


    You will also see a lot more nation-wide network outages on Verizon's 4G-LTE. They had 4 just this past December.



    Yet Verizon is still attracting 50% more new customers than ATT.



    Its all about experience. Sure they may have outages/battery drain issue but Verizon beats ATT hands down
  • Reply 11 of 19
    al_bundyal_bundy Posts: 1,525member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    Interesting that Verizon has more new accounts but AT&T is still selling more iPhones despite AT&T and Verizon both having the 4S at the same time. We'll probably need another year before we can see any trend to or away from the iPhone on Verizon as a percentage of smartphones sold.





    Verizon had a lot of droid and lte phone releases in 2011 that locked people in
  • Reply 12 of 19
    I would have switched to Verizon when I upgraded if they had an unlimited dataplan. Instead I continued with my grandfathered unlimited data on AT&T, not really because I thought I would need it immediately but because as cloud services and new apps evolve, unlimited data will be a necessity. Of course, as some contracts expire on AT&T, or the top 5% give up and realize that the fake unlimited data AT&T offers isn't worth the poor overall quality of AT&T, more customers will migrate to better service. Then, hopefully, real unlimited plans will be restored as a competitive measure.
  • Reply 13 of 19
    negafoxnegafox Posts: 480member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post


    Interesting. I would have thought that having the "free" 3GS would help their numbers some...



    The iPhone 3GS is gimp compared to other free phones out there. If somebody wanted to be cheap, you can get a refurbished iPhone 4 8 GB from AT&T for $49. The Retina Display and processor bump is totally worth the small fee.
  • Reply 14 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post


    Interesting. I would have thought that having the "free" 3GS would help their numbers some...



    Nah, well-heeled consumers like the typical iPhone user want the latest and greatest.



    If you're signing up for a two-year smartphone contract, you're probably looking at two grand or more in service charges. The cost of the subsidized hardware is pretty nominal.



    Hell, the differences between the iPhone 4S (16GB) and iPhone 3GS (8GB) easily justifies the $200 price spread. Just the camera on the iPhone 4S, talk time and extra 8GB of flash storage would make it worth it.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member
    What does AT&T expect, it sucks. It's pricing is ridiculous. I pay $80 a month on T-Mobile for what would cost me $140 a month on AT&T. For what it is worth, Verizon is about as bad as AT&T.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    What a nonsensical article. I wish the author would have bothered to take a look at what AT&T actually attributed as reasons for the loss.



    Suffice it to say that, of the three main reasons, T-Mobile was the least important.
  • Reply 17 of 19
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    buy a semicolon for crying out loud.
  • Reply 18 of 19
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    Interesting that Verizon has more new accounts but AT&T is still selling more iPhones despite AT&T and Verizon both having the 4S at the same time. We'll probably need another year before we can see any trend to or away from the iPhone on Verizon as a percentage of smartphones sold.



    Simple, ATT is selling iPhones to people that previously owned a iPhone. They had a 3 1/2 yr head start and keeping the vast majority of those customers. A few defected but not the mass exodus that was foolishly predicted. I expect a huge increase in iPhone sales by VZW when the LTE version comes out. No longer will the "not being able to talk and surf" argument hold true.
  • Reply 19 of 19
    Apple announced via Twitter from its Apple Retail Workers account...
    Wrong. That isn't one of Apple's official twitter accounts. @AAPLRetailUnion is an independent group of retail workers. I'm sure they'll be amused that the media is confusing them with Apple's official PR.
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