BGR reports that sales of the Verizon iPhone have not quite lived up to Apple's and Verizon's expectations, offering exact unit sales data aggregated from five Apple retail store locations showing that Verizon iPhone only barely outsold the AT&T version over the Verizon device's first five days of availability.
Below are unit sales totals from five Apple stores combined (including two very, very prominent Apple stores) showing both Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4 sales during the Verizon iPhone's first five days of availability:
- Thursday: Verizon = 909, AT&T = 539
- Friday: Verizon = 916, AT&T = 680
- Saturday: Verizon = 660, AT&T = 471
- Sunday: Verizon = 796, AT&T = 701
- Monday: Verizon = 711, AT&T = 618
According to the source, pre-orders for the Verizon iPhone came in at about 550,000. And the first few days of in-store availability did in fact see strong Verizon iPhone sales relative to the AT&T iPhone, but that performance quickly tailed off to the point where sales are nearly equal.
Many observers had expected a rush of customers heading from AT&T to Verizon as the new device debuted, even though most AT&T iPhone customers are still currently tied to contracts. But the new data shows that, at least at a handful of Apple stores, AT&T iPhones are selling nearly as quickly as Verizon ones even as the latter should be seeing a huge surge with its debut.
What would possibly have been even more interesting is to see a comparison of this data to sales at the same locations just prior to the Verizon iPhone launch, in order to see just how sales of the AT&T iPhone have been affected by the availability of the Verizon model and to get a gauge of how total U.S. iPhone sales have changed with the new dual-carrier arrangement.
The report also offers statistics on Verizon iPhone purchasers, presumably gathered by Verizon and/or Apple at the time of purchase. According to the report, 14% of Verizon iPhone purchasers were coming over from an AT&T iPhone, while 30% had been Android users and 25% had been BlackBerry users.
Update: According to Bloomberg, a Verizon spokesperson has said that the carrier is pleased with iPhone sales so far, but he declined to share exact sales figures until the company's next earnings report.
