Verizon today became the first major U.S. carrier to report financial results for the first quarter of 2013, and with Apple's earnings not being released until next week, Verizon's numbers offer the first look at how Apple's quarter might turn out.
Verizon reported activations of 7.2 million smartphones during the quarter, and TechCrunch notes that on the company's conference call the carrier revealed that 4 million of those were iPhones, which corresponds to 55% of total smartphone activations. Verizon also noted that the iPhone 5 accounted for roughly half of iPhone activations on the carrier, with the iPhone 4S and 4 accounting for the remaining half.
Verizon's overall iPhone numbers are down from 6.2 million iPhones representing nearly two-thirds of Verizon activations last quarter, but the fourth quarter of 2012 was the launch quarter for the iPhone 5, skewing the company's numbers.
A more relevant comparison comes from the first quarter of 2012, which saw Verizon activate 3.2 million iPhones for just over half of the carrier's total smartphone activations in a quarter when Apple shipped 35.1 million iPhones worldwide. Those numbers show that iPhone activations on Verizon rose 25% year-over-year and are giving Wall Street analysts optimism that Apple may meet their overall targets for the quarter, which are generally in the 35-37 million range.
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UPDATE: Here is a little perspective:
2011Q3: Verizon sold 5.6M smartphones -- 2M iPhones / 3.6M Android
2012Q3: Verizon sold 6.8M smartphones -- 3.1M iPhones / 3.7M Android
Q3 YEAR OVER YEAR CHANGE: iPhone +55% / Android +4%
2011Q4: Verizon sold 7.7M smartphones -- 4.3M iPhones / 3.4M Android
2012Q4: Verizon sold 9.8M smartphones -- 6.2M iPhones / 3.6M Android
Q4 YEAR OVER YEAR CHANGE: iPhone + 44% / Android +6%
2012Q1: Verizon sold 6.3M smartphones -- 3.2M iPhone / 3.1M Android
2013Q1: Verizon sold 7.2M snartphones -- 4M iPhones / 2.9M Android / 0.3M Other
Q1 YEAR OVER YEAR CHANGE: iPhone + 25% / Android -3%
Maybe the Verizon users going with the iPhone 4S don't want to give up their grandfathered unlimited data. Activating the iPhone 5 requires you activate LTE on your contract, which will then force you into a tiered data plan unless you pay the full, unsubstidized price of the iPhone 5.
My wife is paying $75/month for the lowest voice plan, 250 texts, and unlimited data. She would be forced to pay at least $85/month for the same voice plan, 250 texts, and 2GB of LTE data with the iPhone 5. We are trying to lower our monthly payments, not increase them. ;)