Verizon activates 9.8M smartphones during holiday quarter
updated 01:11 pm EST, Wed January 9, 2013
May point to over 5.4 million in Verizon iPhone sales
Verizon activated 9.8 million smartphones during the last quarter, the carrier has announced. The data comes from an 8-K filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um notes that in Q4 2011 Verizon sold 7.7 million smartphones, of which about 56 percent were iPhones. If the same ratio were applied to Q4 2012, that would indicate close to 5.5 million iPhones. Verizon is so far only saying that the 2012 quarter showed a "higher mix of Apple smartphones," without clarifying whether that means year-over-year or quarter-to-quarter.
Verizon's figures are short of those announced by AT&T, which managed over 10 million smartphones during Q4. It's uncertain how many of those may be iPhones, but details should be exposed on January 24th, the day of AT&T's quarterly financial results call. Apple will share its own financial results the day before, but doesn't typically break down iPhone sales per carrier.
