Verizon Wireless adds 1.7M subscribers in Q4, 70% now have smartphones

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
As competition between U.S. wireless carriers heats up, Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced the addition of nearly 2 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Verizon


The late-year additions account for nearly half of the 4.1 million net new subscribers Verizon says they added in 2013. Nearly all of the company's 102.8 million customers are postpaid, with just 5 million subscribers opting for prepaid services.

Verizon appears especially proud of the completion of its 4G LTE rollout, with the company repeatedly referring to the milestone during Tuesday's earnings announcement conference call. More than 300 million Americans now have access to Verizon-provided 4G LTE services in over 500 markets, accounting for 99 percent of Verizon's existing 3G coverage area.

High-speed LTE services are especially important in light of the dramatic market share gains smartphones have made in recent years --?handsets like Apple's iPhone now represent seven out of every ten active lines on Verizon's wireless network.

Revenue increased 5.7 percent year-over-year to $21.1 billion, with revenue from services jumping to $17.7 billion. Average revenue per account, or ARPA, grew 7.1 percent year-over-year to $157.21.

Despite the robust growth, Verizon is facing increased pressure from rivals.

T-Mobile, which has commanded attention in recent weeks for a spate of promotional changes aimed at siphoning customers away from larger carriers, added 4.4 million customers in 2013 and is. Sprint, which will report its own fourth-quarter results on Feb. 11, is also expected to be more aggressive after its acquisition by Japanese carrier SoftBank.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25

    70% are smartphones with half of those being iPhones, eh?

     

    Yeah, I’m sure Android is selling.

     

    Average revenue per account, or ARPA, grew 7.1 percent year-over-year to $157.21.


     

    That’s fine. Now how about telling us profit per account.

  • Reply 2 of 25
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    70% are smartphones with half of those being iPhones, eh?

    Yeah, I’m sure Android is selling.

    Odd, but don't they normally release iPhone sales data as well?
  • Reply 3 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post



    Odd, but don't they normally release iPhone sales data as well?

    Maybe they don't want to destroy their non-Apple handset-maker relationships.

  • Reply 4 of 25
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Maybe they don't want to destroy their non-Apple handset-maker relationships.

    That's possible. I still have a hard time believing how many subscribers they claim to have, at over 100 millions subs means that 1 in 3 people in this country are a VZW customer.
  • Reply 5 of 25
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    Odd, but don't they normally release iPhone sales data as well?



    They sold 8.8 millions smartphones but didnt disclose the iphones numbers. Last year they sold 9.8 millions smartphones, so they have a YoY decline. Last year iphones number was 6.2 millions iphones.

     

    imo Apple didnt sold 6.2 millions iphones out of 8.8 millions smartphones, so the iphone number is probably down YoY. That being said, I think VZ lost sales to sprint and other players, so it blurrs the results. The tablet activation number was 625 k, imo a lot of those are ipads. 

     

    Since I have to count this as a bad results for Apple, I must go into earning with limited stock/option exposures. But, because of market share improments and the number of countries at launch this fall, I still think Apple could blowout.

  • Reply 6 of 25
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    herbapou wrote: »

    They sold 8.8 millions smartphones but didnt disclose the iphones numbers. Last year they sold 9.8 millions smartphones, so they have a YoY decline. Last year iphones number was 6.2 millions iphones.

    imo Apple didnt sold 6.2 millions iphones out of 8.8 millions smartphones, so the iphone number is probably down YoY. That being said, I think VZ lost sales to sprint and other players, so it blurrs the results.

    The tablet activation number was 625 k, imo a lot of those are ipads.

    Where did you get your numbers from? I'm on the VZ website and I don't see that type of breakdown.
  • Reply 7 of 25
    When the iphone 5s and 5c came out last fall. The carriers had very few if any phones for at least three weeks. Apple had them, but in the case of the 5s a wait time. I do not have any reference of the past.
  • Reply 8 of 25
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Both Verizon and ATT stopped reporting iPhone sales/activations. I'm not sure why but I think it might have started last quarter?
  • Reply 9 of 25
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    herbapou wrote: »

    They sold 8.8 millions smartphones but didnt disclose the iphones numbers. Last year they sold 9.8 millions smartphones, so they have a YoY decline. Last year iphones number was 6.2 millions iphones.

    imo Apple didnt sold 6.2 millions iphones out of 8.8 millions smartphones, so the iphone number is probably down YoY. That being said, I think VZ lost sales to sprint and other players, so it blurrs the results. The tablet activation number was 625 k, imo a lot of those are ipads. 

    Since I have to count this as a bad results for Apple, I must go into earning with limited stock/option exposures. But, because of market share improments and the number of countries at launch this fall, I still think Apple could blowout.
    Apple stock is actually up today, over 1% last time I checked. If Wall Street had reason to believe Verizon numbers meant not so good iPhone numbers for the quarter wouldn't the stock be down today? Even if Apple sold fewer iPhones on Verizon, they weren't on t-mobile last year so maybe that's why. Maybe people are going elsewhere.
  • Reply 10 of 25
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    Where did you get your numbers from? I'm on the VZ website and I don't see that type of breakdown.

     

    those numbers came out on the call, but I am sure some websites have relay them. search it.

  • Reply 11 of 25
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    Apple stock is actually up today, over 1% last time I checked. If Wall Street had reason to believe Verizon numbers meant not so good iPhone numbers for the quarter wouldn't the stock be down today? Even if Apple sold fewer iPhones on Verizon, they weren't on t-mobile last year so maybe that's why. Maybe people are going elsewhere.

     

    The high pre-earnings is around $570, so we did not have an earning rally, we are down on it.  imo wall street is mixed on Apple, there is a war between greed and playing safe. imo noone can predict where we will be pre-earnings.  I do have some option play on this.

  • Reply 12 of 25
    froodfrood Posts: 771member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    70% are smartphones with half of those being iPhones, eh?

     

    Yeah, I’m sure Android is selling.

     


     

    erm.... if half of them are iPhones, what do you think the rest are?

     

    That said, it looks like the numbers for the quarter are actually better than half for Apple (not atypical for a 'new release' quarter for Apple, the other 3 quarters things historically shift back to Android until Apple releases its next iteration).  6.2Mil out of 9.8Mil activations- so a little over 62%

     

    The number Verizon should be a little concerned about is despite 9.8mil activations they only had a net gain of 1.7mil...  So overall market growth is slowing, and of that people are noticeably moving toward the less expensive unsubsidized plans that are gaining traction.

     

     


  • Reply 13 of 25
    Originally Posted by Frood View Post

    erm.... if half of them are iPhones, what do you think the rest are?


     

    Android plus Windows plus Blackberry plus…

  • Reply 14 of 25
    froodfrood Posts: 771member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    Android plus Windows plus Blackberry plus…


     

    lol so yes, pretty much Android :p

  • Reply 15 of 25
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Frood View Post

     

     

    erm.... if half of them are iPhones, what do you think the rest are?

     

    That said, it looks like the numbers for the quarter are actually better than half for Apple (not atypical for a 'new release' quarter for Apple, the other 3 quarters things historically shift back to Android until Apple releases its next iteration).  6.2Mil out of 9.8Mil activations- so a little over 62%

     

    The number Verizon should be a little concerned about is despite 9.8mil activations they only had a net gain of 1.7mil...  So overall market growth is slowing, and of that people are noticeably moving toward the less expensive unsubsidized plans that are gaining traction.

     

     




     

    Youre source link is reporting last year numbers...  

  • Reply 16 of 25
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

     

    Maybe they don't want to destroy their non-Apple handset-maker relationships.


    More likely quite the opposite. I would not be surprised if Apple has pressured the carriers to stop reporting the breakouts. They don't like analysts and day traders reverse engineering the numbers and influencing the stock price before they report. 

  • Reply 17 of 25
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    herbapou wrote: »
    Youre source link is reporting last year numbers...  

    The date on the website is today's.
  • Reply 18 of 25
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    The date on the website is today's.



    numbers are still wrong...

  • Reply 19 of 25
    70% are smartphones with half of those being iPhones, eh?

    Yeah, I’m sure Android is selling.

    That’s fine. Now how about telling us profit per account.

    Wanted to thumbs up you, but 'I'm over my limit for rating content. Please try again later.'
  • Reply 20 of 25
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    That’s fine. Now how about telling us profit per account.

    Why does that matter? This is from their website.
    "29.5 percent operating income margin"
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