At Verizon, the iPhone Still Rules

Apple’s iPhone remains the dominant smartphone at Verizon.

Reporting second-quarter earnings on Thursday, Verizon said that once again it sold more iPhones than it did any other handset. The carrier sold 7.5 million smartphones during the period. Of those, 3.8 million — 51 percent — were iPhones. (Note: Verizon did not break down sales by model). This despite the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 during the quarter.

That’s a decline from the quarter prior, in which Verizon sold 4.1 million iPhones, and those devices accounted for a 55.6 percent share of its smartphone sales. But on a year-over-year basis, it’s up significantly. The 3.8 million iPhones that Verizon activated in the just-reported quarter is 44 percent more than the 2.7 million iPhones it activated in the second quarter of 2012.

And that’s encouraging news, coming as it does ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings report next Tuesday. As BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk told AllThingsD this morning, “Reported iPhone sales at U.S. operators have often been a good indicator of Apple’s quarter, and they are off to a good start with Verizon.”