iPhone accounted for half of Verizon's smartphone sales in Q1 2012
Next week we get to hear how Apple did in the quarter ending March 31, 2012. Today, Verizon announced its earnings for the first quarter of 2012, and the news is good for both Apple and Verizon.
Verizon announced that it activated 3.2 million iPhones during the quarter, over half of the total 6.3 million smartphone sales for the company in the traditionally slow January to March timeframe. That's less than the 4.3 million iPhones sold in the previous quarter, which encompassed both the launch of the iPhone 4S and the brisk sales usually seen during the holidays.
Wall Street analysts are expecting Apple's iPhone sales to be down for the first calendar quarter of 2012, and it appears that the Verizon news supports that analysis. However, the iPhone 4S became available in many more countries around the world in the first calendar quarter. China Unicom's launch of the device in January, followed by China Telecom in the early part of March, should help Apple's numbers.
In other news, Verizon noted that users of its 4G LTE network (including those with the new third-generation iPad) now make up 9.1 percent of the company's wireless user base.
