Verizon’s quarterly financial results are in, and they’re better than expected, partly thanks to the company’s adoption of the iPhone in February.
Shortly after introducing the iPhone, Verizon announced that the pre-orders had sold out, marking the most successful phone launch in the company’s history. Now we know the exact numbers. Verizon says it activated 2.2 million iPhones, as well as 500,000 4G devices, 260,000 of which were HTC Thunderbolts, in the company’s first quarter.
Verizon also reported earnings of $3.26 billion with revenue of $26.99 billion, narrowly beating Wall Street estimates. But the company added only 906,000 post-paid subscribers and 364,000 connected devices (such as Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab), totalling 1.8 million new subscribers in the quarter, which was a little lower than estimates.
For comparison, AT&T reported 3.6 million iPhone activations, 3.4 million added subscribers (which includes 421,000 subcribers of data-only devices) in its first quarter. AT&T’s results show its resiliency against the “Verizon effect,” probably due to the advantage of having the cheaper iPhone 3GS in its inventory.
