iPhone Sales Spiking at Verizon
Looks like AT&T wasn’t the only U.S. wireless carrier to have a blowout fourth quarter. Verizon on Wednesday announced that it, too, activated a ton of smartphones during the period.
In a filing with the SEC — following Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam’s comments at the 2013 Citi Global Internet, Media & Communications Conference — Verizon said it activated 9.8 million smartphones during the fourth quarter. Importantly, it also noted that those activations included a “higher mix of Apple smartphones.” Verizon offered no details beyond that, so we’ll have to wait until the company reports earnings to learn just how many iPhones it sold.
That said, it’s a safe bet that the Android-iPhone mix at Verizon has moved closer to 50-50 equilibrium — if not beyond it. After all, in the third quarter of 2012, 3.1 million of the 6.8 million smartphones the carrier sold were iPhones.
That’s 45.5 percent right there. Given the fall launch of the iPhone 5, it’s likely that the carrier experienced a significant spike in iPhone sales, perhaps enough to capture a 50 percent share — or more.