AT&T announced its third-quarter financials, demonstrating earnings that met analyst forecasts and exceed expectations in regards to wireless subscriptions, but also declared that as of October 18, the company had activated over 1 million iPhone 4S handsets. The iPhone 4S’ one million sales contributed AT&T’s most successful launch in the company’s history and AT&T sold 4.8 million smartphones in its third-quarter, totalling 2.7 million iPhone activations in that period – a decline from 3.6 million in its third quarter…………………….
AT&T said that it has activated one million iPhone 4S smartphones as of Tuesday, making it the most successful Apple iPhone launch in AT&T history and AT&T only activated 2.7 million iPhones during the third quarter, which ended on September 20. it’s the lowest figure reported in the past 18 months for the Dallas, Texas-based company. The telecom said it also added 319,000 wireless customers, less than half the number it added in the same period a year ago. “This is a country that, for all purposes, is 100 percent saturated with wireless customers,” Rick Franklin, an analyst at Edward Jones, told The New York Times. “Given that there is any growth at all with AT&T is an amazing feat.” The results show that AT&T is continuing to rely more on mobile data revenue, as it shifts its focus away from landline service and becomes largely wireless. AT&T said 75 percent of its total revenue was derived from wireless data and landline data revenue. AT&T posted a profit of only $3.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $12.3 billion a year earlier, although the 2010 figures were strengthened because of the sale of assets. AT&T’s operating revenue slipped to $31.48 billion during the quarter, compared with $31.58 billion a year ago, a decline of less than 1 percent. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the company to report operating revenue of $31.60 billion. AT&T now vies with Sprint, Verizon and regional carrier C Spire in iPhone sales. Sprint said last week that it had its best ever day of sales when it started selling the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Verizon has not released any of its figures yet.
[ttjad keyword=”iphone”]
