Apple’s iPhone 4 still top-selling smartphone at AT&T, Verizon as iPhone 5 looms

By on Sep 6, 2011 at 11:00 AM
mobile September 6, 2011

Apple’s iPhone 4 maintained its position as the best-selling smartphone for both AT&T and Verizon Wireless last month despite the fact that the handset is now more than a year old. Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley on Tuesday raised his price target on Apple stock to $545 from his prior target of $515, reiterating a Buy rating. Walkley reports that checks again showed strong sell-through for the iPhone 4 in August, and he also noted that the addition of Sprint as a likely carrier partner for the iPhone 5 will bolster sales in 2011 and into 2012. “Our August checks indicated the iPhone 4 remained the top selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon despite consumer speculation regarding the upcoming iPhone 5 launch,” the analyst writes. “Further, we believe Sprint will receive the new iPhone at launch and heavily promote it given the carrier’s unlimited data plan.” Walkley now believes Apple will sell 83 million iPhones in 2011 and 107 million units next year, and he bumped his 2011 iPad sales estimates from 56 million units to 59 million as well.

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  • DREW J

    Poor tmobile better get it too.. Thatd be BS

    • Anonymous

      really awesome I just got a $829.99 iPad2 for only $103.37 and my mom got a $1499.99 HDTV for only $251.92, they are both coming with USPS tomorrow. I would be an idiot to ever pay full retail prices at places like Walmart or Bestbuy. I sold a 37″ HDTV to my boss for $600 that I only paid $78.24 for. I use BidsNéw.com

  • Anonymous

    …..I HAD NO IDEA!!!!!

    Thanks BGR…..thanks for telling me what I didn’t know.

    • ME

      haha, im pretty sure that we seen this a million times on BGR. They are running out of content

    • Anonymous

      really awesome I just got a $829.99 iPad2 for only $103.37 and my mom got a $1499.99 HDTV for only $251.92, they are both coming with USPS tomorrow. I would be an idiot to ever pay full retail prices at places like Walmart or Bestbuy. I sold a 37″ HDTV to my boss for $600 that I only paid $78.24 for. I use BidsNéw.com

  • http://twitter.com/Aleis Jayrock

    HTC evo is ugh…yeah..STILL SELLING!!
    just saying. its a competition :)

  • Anonymous

    That’s crazy considering it’s a year+ old. Also, I’m suprised it sells so well considering how much it’s downplayed at AT&T and Verizon. They will try there hardest to sell you an android.

    • Anonymous

      Well that’s a baseless, anecdotal claim if I’ve ever seen one.

      • Anonymous

        You forgot to add correct to your list. There’s nothing these ‘sales associates’ like to do more than feign tech superiority by diminishing the iPhone and pushing whatever Android device was released that week.

      • Anonymous

        It’s nothing to do with “tech superiority”.
         
        Margins on the iPhone for anyone other than Apple are terrible. Hence, the sales people don’t make much commission on them, thus they try to sell an Android device. Apple is also a pain to deal with on nearly every other aspect for the stores and salespeople, it doesn’t leave them with a good impression of the product, if they don’t make anywhere near as much selling them, why would they?

         

      • Anonymous

        @Wildkatct

        Besides maintaining job integrity and just not being a sleazy douchebag, the reason they should still sell iPhones is that the only product impression that matters is the customer’s, not the associate’s. It matters not to Suzy Cellphone Buyer that the employee (re: the person paid to assist them) has to deal with Apple on the back-end. It is the job of the associate to ask questions of the end user to determine which product best fits they’re needs, not to dump shitty products on them to earn what is surely a meager increase in bonus pay.

      • Michael Scrip

        @Wildkatct:disqus 

        I think by now the iPhone sells itself.  People have heard of it… they know other people with iPhones… and so on.

        People didn’t have to ask a salesperson which MP3 player to buy either… they ended up choosing the iPod because it’s the one they’ve heard of, and it had a music store.

        And don’t twist my “they’ve heard of it” comment to say that people haven’t seen the countless Droid commercials on TV. I just think the iPhone is extremely recognizable.

      • Anonymous

        @Wildkatct:disqus 
        Having worked at Verizon Wireless corporate up until a few months ago, corporate sales reps make the same amount of money whether they sale an iPhone or Android device. Third-party sales reps are the ones with commissions that is determined by the profit of the device.

    • http://twitter.com/computer_tweets KW

      “their”

    • Anonymous

      Its not really surprising at all.  If you go into a wireless shop and you want to buy an iPhone your choice is limited to one phone, iPhone 4 (two iPhones at AT&T).  If you go into the same shop and want to buy a Blackberry or Android you have many choices.

      Phone “model” sales as a statistic is perhaps the least useful of all of the metrics.

      • Michael Scrip

        But it really says something when Apple, a single company, sold 20 million iPhones last quarter… and the iPhone 4 was a year old… and the 3GS was over 2 years old at the time.

        It makes you wonder why other companies pump out 5 or 6 new models a year… 

      • Anonymous

        But it really says something when in a short time Google, a single company, destroy’s Apple’s market share in a very short amount of time.

        j/k

        But seriously, were you gazing off into the distance as you said that?

        And you realize it’s the difference between the PC model of selling versus the Mac model, right?

      • Michael Scrip

        @sonicyoof:disqus 

        Exactly… you can’t really compare them.

        A handful of different manufacturers with dozens of models coming out every couple months… while Apple only sells a couple variations of the same phone once a year.

        It’s funny you brought up the PC/Mac.  HP is the largest PC manufacturer in the world…. yet they really wanna get out of the PC business because there’s barely any money in it…

    • Anonymous

      Srsly, ATT hates the iPhone.

  • Lou Skunt

    BGR likes articles about the iphone, report claims.

    • Anonymous

      so does every other tech blogs and tech media.

      • Anonymous

        I know. Its exhausting. I used to love tech blogs because of the variety. They didn’t just report on the popular tech, they reported on the weird and the impressive and such…

        Goodbye cruel world

      • Anonymous

        Go to anandtech or arstechnica if you want more than superficial reporting.

    • Anonymous

      BGR readers like to read them too.

  • Anonymous

    Apple will rule the world.  true story™©®

    • Anonymous

      You are such a  get a life.

      • Anonymous

        Intelligent response.

  • Aj

    Apple stock dives and the “expert” raises his expectations, even with Android out selling IOS. When this clown is proven to be a moron, will he lose his so-called standing as an expert?

    • Anonymous

      What are you babbling about? The stock is at $373 as of now. Their high is $374.09. Apple is taking home 66% of the mobile industry profits. It’s great that Android can outsell the iPhone with BOGOs and a free Android phone with a haircut at Supercuts but do you think anyone is making money off of this?

      • Anonymous

        Good job point out that this is just smartphone market share. Measure Android entire ecosystem to iOS entire ecosystem and iOS marketshare eclipses Android… 

    • Anonymous

      Outselling = more profits! Er wait not in the smartphone world. Marketshare has less value than profit to stockholders.

    • Anonymous

      Wait. Stock analyst says buy, but BGR commenter Aj says sell…

      What do?!

    • Zac Caslin

      Android is not outselling IOS as a whole. But facts don’t matter to fandroids.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rick-Ramey/100001226835467 Rick Ramey

    What will BGR write about once the iPhone 5 is actually released? Oh, silly me. Speculation on the iPhone 6, of course.

    • Anonymous

      Nah, iPad 3 will come first.

    • Anonymous

      If there weren’t so many frivolous articles about Apple’s releases then we all wouldn’t have the opportunity to relish in your snarky witticisms.

  • Bullyboyb

    Unless you are a shareholder or a competitor or have a vested stake in apple why should this news matter?
    tell me about the technology, the design, the innovation in these gadgets, I am not interested in random baseless sales projections by useless analysts who in someway didn’t see the economic down turn coming until it bumped onto their long noses.

    • Anonymous

      There has been little innovation lately from what I have seen. How about some news on batteries improving!

      • Anonymous

        Little innovation?  In a few short years, we’ve gone from Razr and Windows Mobile to iPhone/Android.  From stylus entry to multi-touch, 3G to 50% LTE coverage in the US.  We’ve seen the first appealing tablets (first iPad, then Android), 330 ppi screens, phone app stores toping 400,000 apps and dual core phones.  Maybe nothing earth shattering has happened in a couple of months, but the mobile techies are certainly innovating, possibly faster than any other industry.

      • Anonymous

        I meant more so in the last year and was responding to what the guy above me said about wanting to know about the innovation in these gadgets. 

        The iPad was a game changer, but beyond that I see everything else as just progression. 

        3G to 4G, bigger screens, thinner devices, more apps, etc. What else “new” has come out that is really innovative. Don’t get me wrong, I love tech and want more more more.

        People like to talk about how all the lawsuits and legal battles are stopping innovation, but I don’t see what is being slowed or stopped.

        We can predict what the next 20 Androids and the next iPhone/Pad are going to have, not many “unknown” advances coming up. The only guesswork is what aren’t these devices going to have that is already available. If the iPhone 5 doesn’t have NFC, but the 6 does, that isn’t innovation.

      • Anonymous

        @Ruh2  I agree, I didn’t really think about disruptive vs sustaining innovation.   Arguably the Atrix was revolutionary (maybe disruptive), but it looks like it wasn’t quite ready for prime time and Moto flubbed it (because of software, again, as is usually Moto’s downfall).  Other than that, I can’t think of anything over the last year either.

      • Anonymous

        Yeah they can come up with so many names for screens like super uber duper AMOLED PLUS to 5th degree and keep making the juicing suck screen bigger & bigger… Not much discussed about anything the companies are doing to push battery tech further, if anything. 

  • http://twitter.com/computer_tweets KW

    AT&T-F**k yea!

  • Anonymous

    Numbers don’t really matter. Hatred does!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=63900900 Sean Eppel

    I’m sure iPhone 5 will be a great phone, but OS’s aside, I don’t see how it will compete on the hardware side against the Galaxy S2 phones, or the new Ice Cream Sandwich phones if it’s just running the same hardware as the iPad 2.

    • Zac Caslin

      How will they out do a cheap plastic phone?

    • Anonymous

      Bigger screen and dual-core, what else is there? iPhone 4 #1 (1yr+) and 3GS #2 (2yr+) top selling phones, hardware isn’t as important as we geeks think it is.

  • Christian

    of course the iphone was their top selling PHONE. but i bet android was the top selling OS. imagine if you had a bag of 100 candies; 40 were m&m’s, 30 tootsie rolls, 20 peppermint candies, and 10 other misc. candies. sure you ate more m&m’s that any other candy, but as a (candy) whole, those m&m’s were the least eaten.

    • Brandon

      Christian, your analogy saddens me. It would make sense if all the candy cost the same price, but even in a real world situation, certain pieces of candy cost more than the other. I would rather sell less products and make more, than more products and make less.

      • Christian

        hmm, you missed the point of the analogy. it’s not about price, it’s about numbers. (best selling)

      • Anonymous

        I believe iOS is still outselling Android or at least close when you throw in iPod Touch and iPads. Devs & Apple care about money, not who is selling more devices (well they probably care a little). 

        It is impressive how much of a monster Android has become, especially going up against the iPhone to begin with, but it is just as impressive that the iphone is still doing sell well considering its limitations (carriers, form factors, price, etc), both are doing amazing, regardless of what haters of both think.

  • Shanghai Dan

    Interesting…  Post was not allowed…  I guess pointing out that iOS is losing marketshare worldwide, and is now eclipsed by Android (which is growing) doesn’t flow very well.  Interesting to see at StatCounter just how the markets are shifting long-term.

    In some markets, Nokia is still the top-selling smartphone as well – likewise Blackberry in some markets!  But that doesn’t make BGR front-page news, does it?

    • Anonymous

      Correction #1… iOS overall market share eclipse Android. In the Smartphone market Android eclipse iOS
       
      Correction #2 .. iOS was never the market leader, they reached mid 20% market share and have yet to leave that 20% share range by going up or down. 

      Windows, Nokia, RIM, are the ones losing marketshare in chunks to Android and smaller bits to iOS.

      • Shanghai Dan

        Sorry, StatCounter’s Mobile OS graph includes the iPad and iTouch – it is for all mobile OS devices, not just smartphones.  And worldwide – iOS is down to 3rd place, below Android.

        iOS never beat Symbian – to date, no one has.  But it did lead Android by a significant amount last year, and in 12 months we’ve seen iOS go from 26% and Android from 9% to 19% for iOS and 21% for Android.

        And Symbian really isn’t losing marketshare – 12 months ago it was a 31.5%, and now it’s at 32%.  It really hasn’t lost anything.  RIM and iOS have been the big losers in marketshare over the last year.

        SOURCE: StatCounter

    • Anonymous

      Do you know why Statcounter doesn’t list WM or WP7, WM is said to have up to 8% of US market, yet doesn’t show up, where are those user’s numbers ending up?

      • Shanghai Dan

        I think it shows up in “other” because there are so many variants of WM out there….

  • Bringit

    Everybody wants (at least) one.  

  • Anonymous

    ….

  • Anonymous

    ..woohooo.,.I just got a $829.99 iPad2 for only $103.37 and my mom got a $1499.99 HDTV for only $251.92, they are both coming with USPS tomorrow. I would be an idiot to ever pay full retail prices at places like Walmart or Bestbuy. I sold a 37″ HDTV to my boss for $600 that I only paid $78.24 for. I use CentHub.cōm

  • Anonymous

    Blah blah blah, analyst seem to think they know everything. It’s like Pinky and the Brain, they think they are so smart.

  • Anonymous

    This makes a lot of sense dude. Very cool stuff indeed.

    anonymize.edu.tc

  • Anonymous

    I think its more surprising that the Droid Charge was #2 and HTC Thunderbolt was #3 for Verizon. I heard tons of complaints about both devices. Although I do like the Charge’s design, its different.

  • Drybones5

    Probably because there is quite a few Android phones for selection.  My friend wanted my Captivate but bought an HTC Inspire instead cause it had a bigger screen.

    My aunt wanted one with a slide out keyboard to text her daughter easier.

    My dad wants the Atrix because it’s more business looking than the Inspire and docks.

    I guarantee a single Android smartphone, no matter how amazing it is will never sell as much as a single iPhone.  But it doesn’t mean android isn’t selling more overall or that the phones they offer are bad.  It just means we have choices.  A great selection and not everyone wants the same thing or same specs or even the highest specs.

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