AT&T claims 1.9 million new iPhone 3G activations during Q4 2008

By on Jan 28, 2009 at 1:41 PM
General January 28, 2009

First things first: 1.9 million activations is nothing to scoff at. It’s a huge number, and represents AT&T and Apple’s unquestionable success in the smartphone arena. Including the 4th Quarter results, the company can claim 4.3 million total iPhone activations since the introduction of the iPhone 3G, an impressive number by anyone’s standards and a certain earmark of Apple and AT&T’s continuing dominance in the consumer market. The company also revealed, somewhat cryptically, that iPhone users generate “higher revenue” and “lower churn rates”. Good, right? Right. On the other hand, the company also reported that its general earnings were down to $2.4 billion from $3.1 billion just one year prior. The drop is completely understandable, however, given the general recession and the fact that the company seems to be fending off any sort of massive disruption. On another, slightly more comical note, AT&T blamed some of its earnings drop on its “iPhone 3G Initiative” designed to build out coverage and tower infrastructure to cope with the increased network demands. We’re not sure about you, but it doesn’t seem like the aforementioned initiative has hit anywhere close to our home towers…

Read

Tags:
, , , ,
32 Comments

Related Articles

  • backbeat

    ^Because one can speak intelligently about any particular carrier’s economic position, I’m defined as an apologist? Damn, and I was just about to post nice things in the Verizon earnings thread too. Grow up.

  • Steve Jobs Corpse

    Ok @backbeat, yes you are right. It does take a little bit of intelligence to spin this story in AT&T’s favor as elegantly as you did.

  • backbeat

    ^LMAO. Thanks for the belly-laugh!

    Once you’ve been in this world a couple more decades, I’ll consider listening to such short-term-focused opinion. Not a minute before, however. ;)

  • The Jackal

    Oh my goodness…such bickering. Know that when a company shows earnings..whether they are up or down-you have to realize that it’s for their entire ‘book of business’ like many have said here previously.
    My 2 cents…I got the iphone last month, my reception, service, and call quality vastly improved. 3g pegged almost everywhere! Coming off of a moto on edge where I was lucky to get 2 bars max in my home…I sit here on my couch with 3g max bars…no complaints from me-I’ve had a great experience with my transition. I’m sorry others have not been so fortunate, but there are so many factors that go into it..

  • Steve Jobs Corpse

    @Jackal: So the iPhone made your AT&T service that much better?

  • The Jackal

    @Steve Jobs Corpse,

    Crazy-I know, but it did. I have been a long time AT

  • The Jackal

    @Steve Jobs Corpse Sorry bout that-don’t know what happened…
    Yes….I have been a long time AT&T customer…from the way back Bellsouth mobility days. I was actually considering making the move to VZ since my moto edge handset barely got 2 bars inside my house(did not used to be that bad…progressively has gotten unusable) But I wanted to give the iphone a 30 day try…i am impressed…3g signal maxed out in my home. I can now understand why this handset turns folks into phanbois…

1 2
blog comments powered by Disqus