Verizon sold 2 million iPhones in Q3, 700,000 fewer than AT&T

By on Oct 21, 2011 at 12:00 PM
Business October 21, 2011

Verizon Communications on Friday revealed that it sold 2 million iPhone handsets during the third quarter of 2011, 700,000 fewer than top rival AT&T. Verizon reported its third-quarter earnings on Friday and during a conference call with analysts, the carrier revealed that it sold 2 million iPhones last quarter. AT&T on Thursday reported that it activated 2.7 million iPhones during the same quarter, 35% more than Verizon. AT&T of course, had a steep advantage that has grown even more substantial following the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 4S. During the third quarter, Verizon Wireless sold a $199 iPhone 4 with 16GB of storage and a $299 iPhone 4 with 32GB of storage. AT&T offered the same two models along with a less expensive iPhone 3GS that the carrier says was very popular. In the fourth quarter, Verizon and AT&T will both offer a $99 iPhone alongside three iPhone 4S models, but AT&T also now has a free iPhone 3GS to give away on contract. Verizon blamed next-generation iPhone rumors for slowing iPhone 4 sales during the third quarter.

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  • http://techonblogger.ward.pro/ TechRumblings

    This should be expected, shouldn’t it?  Verizon has 4G/LTE which surely should be pulling people away from iPhone since it is not available on the iPhone.  Not to mention, Verizon advertises Android much more than AT&T, at least where I live.  

    A funny applicable side note, some of the workers that have been with Verizon for a while still have a bitter taste in their mouths for iPhone.  One told me about a month ago how hard it is to suggest the iPhone to customers after playing it down for so long.  He basically said it is ingrained in him to not like the iPhone, no matter how hard he tries.   I wonder if that affects sales too.

    • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

      I personally hate the iPhone for those reasons. Each VZW team member was locked in rooms, strapped to chairs watching the DROID DOES commercials for approximately 3 months straight while only offered diets of White Castle and Faygo. Until we agreed without hesitation that the iPhone wasn’t as good as DROIDS, we could not leave. A lot of good Verizon employees died those three months…

      • http://techonblogger.ward.pro/ TechRumblings

        LOL!!!

    • Normanhart

      Yup I know about this. I recently worked for a Verizon for a few months after leaving AT&T. I couldn’t believe how anti-iPhone my coworkers were. They constantly talked customers out of buying the iphone. 

  • Anonymous

    Hey BGR, NObody cares!! Get some real news to report!

    • Bringit

      You post, you care.

      • Anonymous

        No you care, I just say the things you won’t.

      • numetheus

        Then doesn’t that mean that you DO care? People that DON’T really care DON’T constantly post on iPhone related articles like you do. Besides, people like you who visit all iPhone related articles only drives the click through count of iPhone articles making them seem popular. Popular stories get more attention because well …. it means they drive people to the site to read THOSE stories. It’s very good for revenue. It’s funny because you always complain that there are many iPhone related articles; yet you are part of the reason. You make the count of people visiting iPhone related stuff go up. Amazing how that works eh?

        It is ALSO funny how you keep saying that you don’t care, yet feel the need to read anything iPhone related and post comments like you do. 

  • Anonymous

    The CDMA/EVDO only iPhone 4 should have been (and still should be) cheaper than the GSM one. Slower, no simultaneous voice and data and no global roaming compatibility. Just sayin…

    • Ashleigh

      In that case the AT&T iPhone should be free since you can’t even make a call on it without the call dropping. AT&T could offer me free phones for life and I would never switch back.

      • Anonymous

        Not sure where you are getting your facts, but as an iPhone user on AT&T, I have never dropped a phone call.

      • Durim

        As an AT&T customer I can tell you are full of shit! No dropped calls hahaha.

      • Ashleigh

        Facts come from me, a former customer of over 5 years. I would drop at least 50% of my calls.

      • numetheus

        @AshleighJ:disqus Your experience in your area means absolutely nothing for someone else in a completely different area. In my area, AT&T never drops a call unless I am in the tunnel where Verizon drops calls also. Sprint is absolutely the WORST carrier to have, yet it is amazing in other states.

        So .. no offense, but your experience means absolutely nothing. BTW I have been with AT&T longer than you have. And I’m not going to claim that based on my experience, AT&T is the best. Because well, that is complete crap unless we live in the same city/state.

      • tedley

        I guess it depends where you live.  I was an at&t iPhone user for two years.  Got sick of the dropped calls (among other things), switched to a blackberry (still on at&t) about three months ago. I haven’t dropped a call since. It really does depend on where you live. The radios in iPhones really are sub par thought.

      • Anonymous

        AT&T iPhone? Don’t you mean Apple iPhone? Steve would have vigorously disagreed with the former. No where on an iPhone does AT&T or Verizon for that matter appear.  Beside, I was taking about GSM -vs- CDMA and old azz CDMA just plain SUX!

        PS, Oooooh, I get it now. “I personally believe that U. S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, like such as in South Africa and The Iraq and everywhere such as, and ….” Yea, guess cellphone coverage and education both suck in SC. Sayin…

      • Yougivemedrymouth

        HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

      • numetheus

        I am on AT&T and never drop calls. It all depends on the area you live in. In my area, Sprint is probably the worst carrier to be on (next to Cricket). AT&T is up there with Verizon. What it REALLY boils down to here is data. AT&T DATA sucks in areas … and so does Verizon. But … I’m sure you know that these things depend on your location right?

      • Ashleigh

        Yes it does vary from area to area; however, I think it’s fair to say that the dropped call issue is pretty widespread. I am far from the first person to have an issue with it.

      • numetheus

        Generally though, it doesn’t matter if it is wide spread. I am with AT&T because I travel out of country. And well … any AT&T phone I get will work anywhere in the world. With a Verizon or Sprint phone, you pretty much have a limited selection of “world” phones to choose from. The world doesn’t use CDMA or even LTE yet. I won’t buy something that tethers me to the united states.

  • http://twitter.com/mbcls ask me

    most people on verizon already tried android!
    once you tried android, why would you even thinking about going fruit?
    once you tried android, fruit is NOT an option!

    • Anonymous

      try claiming that after reading a few 4 & 4S “real user” reviews on VZW site. End the end of the day it is these reviews that matter, not some tech blogger writing in his kitchen.

      • http://twitter.com/mbcls ask me

        and if you ask a Hyundai owner, they will say it’ a great car too!  no offense Hyundai, just an example.

      • Anonymous

        my point escaped you. 

        “most people on verizon already tried android!once you tried android, why would you even thinking about going fruit?once you tried android, fruit is NOT an option!”

        Reading the reviews would point out that is not the case. Many Android owners have made the switch and are pretty happy about it. 

      • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/VCBEBTYM2XLKT7WBH4OWJ5QUZ4 commonsenseplease

        There will always be people wanting to try something new.  The question is *will they go back*.

        The bottom line is that Android users did *NOT* jump ship in the millions, not by a long shot.  That’s why more sales are of Android based smartphones.

      • Anonymous

        Thank You, your comment is more reasonable and factual than the hyperbole:

        “most people on verizon already tried android!
        once you tried android, why would you even thinking about going fruit?once you tried android, fruit is NOT an option!”

        It is non factual, its like me saying all Mac users are iPhone users and that is not the case. 

    • Zac Caslin

      After eating shit I bet fruit looks really good.

  • http://twitter.com/jasenmaster Jasen Master

    I am so beyond sick of Android trolls lurking around BGR just WAITING to talk S&#t the first opportunity they get. If you don’t like BGR’s stories then go elsewhere. It’s ridiculous. Get a life losers. There’s way more to life then being a troll.

    • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

      I love apple articles because it is there that I can let the crApple fans know that DROID OS is better because it is more open and free and has widgets.

      • http://twitter.com/jasenmaster Jasen Master

        I used Android for a year and a half. I actually passed on getting an iPhone to at least try out Android. I did everything, custom ROM, SetCPU, and more… it just wasn’t for me. Very buggy, etc and when I got my iPhone 4 everything changed for the better…for me. MUCH happier now.

      • Anonymous

        It’s funny that you are single-handedly proving the point that Android users are more obsessed with Apple than Apple users. Get a life dude.

      • Anonymous

        He’s a troll, moron. Norm isn’t an Android user.

  • http://twitter.com/Mr_Matt Mr. Matt

    Looking beyond just the iPhone sales… VZW reports 882k post paid net adds while AT&T only posted 319k post paid net adds.  So while AT&T sold more iPhones, VZW gained more net customers. 

    • bigbudha

      really, who care’s. how does that effect you? verizon,att,sprint are the biggest junk fee carrires. tell me Mr.Matt, how does it feel to pay a extra 15-25% of junk fees on your bill every month? why would you care about net post paid customer’s for a thieving company? unless if your share holder. other than that go with the carrier that’s best for you. I use att/tmobile/verizon i should know.

      • foreWard

        feels pretty good whenever I go to make a call, and it connects, every time.

    • Demofya

      My point exactly. I will be glad when media outlets and blog sites stop trying to boost up Apples revenue by misleading figures.

      Bottom line is as follows. As a person who works for a firm that files both AT&T and Verizon Wireless’s taxes, I can assure you that AT&T is losing lots of ground with customers and non Apple products sold. In fact, the reasoning that Verizon and now Sprint are able to sell Apple products and still make big sales with non Apple products shows that AT&T is freefalling fast. (Hence the reason they want T-Mobile so badly).

      Apple and AT&T both are doomed in the future as its becoming more apparrent that smartphones are great, but limitations on wifi and 3-4g, will render more consumers to not get the latest toy… and instead save the money. Watch my words.

  • Demofya

    Yes, that could be true… however… how many android phones and windows phones has AT&T sold in comparison to Verizon??? Im will to bet if you add all the smartphones and tablets sold together, you will be shock to see that AT&T is losing the battle (again) to Verizon.

    People not of the android community need to understand something. Verizon has an EXCLUSITIVITY right contract to the use the name “DROID” (a binding legal contract with Lucas Films.) As a result, any iPhone will fail in comparison to true DROID phones.

    Take note, I did not say ”Android” phones, but “DROID”! All smartphones using the Android software are considered Android phones (and ignorantly called droids). However… only Verizon’s phones with the name DROID in the title (such as the DROID X, DROID 1, 2, and 3, DROID Charge, DROID Incredible, DRIOD Bionic, etc.) are true DROIDs….. This means they are High End smartphones…. the most powerful, feature pack, forward technology used phones on the market (and is the sole reason that so many android phones are put out almost monthly… to keep up in sales). NOTE* This is the reason no tablet has been given the name DROID _____ as of date.

    iPhone measured to any DROID phone never wins… and its been proven constantly. DROIDS perform faster, more efficient, allow users to actually USE the product, build, design, and usually offer exposure to the latest software tools on the market. Case in point, the original designors of “Siri” ripped off a program call Vlingo. Its been avaible on the Market place since 3rdQ 2009. Leave it to Steve Jobs to mislead the public… just as he did with the claim iPhone 4 was an original design…. (meanwhile, the fact LG sued Apple and won a settlement from Apple over LG’s Prada phone showed that Apple is not that original afterall….)

    • Anonymous

      Droid looses where its counts, “consumers” but if that wasnt the most bias post ive ever seen for droid i dont know what is.  There are a number of android phones that i would take over a droid branded phone. and good luck getting those thats not shipping with ice cream sandwich updated.

    • Anonymous

      “the original designors of “Siri” ripped off a program call Vlingo. Its been avaible on the Market place since 3rdQ 2009″ 

      Maybe you should use the search feature of your DROID to learn something about the origin of Siri before making outlandish claims.

      Siri was the result of an A.I. project originated by DARPA and the pentagon in 2003. 

      According to Vlingo they started in 06 

      “We started Vlingo in 2006 with big ideas and small resources. Our founders, John Nguyen (an MIT nerd and former Joust Video Game Champion) and Mike Phillips (a speech geek from Carnegie Mellon) had what was then a crazy idea: what if you could just “tell your phone what do by speaking to it?”  It was an idea for a revolutionary Voice User Interface for mobile—a way to “turn your words into actions.”

      They are basically two different projects, with the same goal with different back stories. Nobody ripped of anyway. Quit with the hyperbole.

    • Anonymous

      Extremely bias – not sure where to start.. Apple is for people that want to use their phones for its intended purpose, can’t be more clear than that. As for “out perform”, Google obsoletes dozens of handsets on every update because Android increasingly demands more power thus taking more power to run efficiently. Let’s take the hottest Android phone from last month, update it to Ice Cream Sandwhich and see if it out performs the iPhone; doubt it. Apple has proven time and time again that it’s not the hardware; you can run twice as fast on half the hardware if you run software in a closed ecosystem.

      What all that said, the majority of Android users don’t need access to source code and are given the ability to alter scripts that they can’t even read, so that argument is just plain dumb since it doesn’t apply to the majority of users. I’m also curious as to what “latest software tools” you talking about? I may be wrong, but the only platforms iPhone users don’t have access to is flash and even Adobe is abandoning it for HTML5 which ironically enough, Apple was one of the original pioneers of..

    • Georgetown Sir

      Iphone 4/4s has been the best selling phone for verizon since february when the iphone 4 debuted. So much for thinking no smartphone can overthrow the DROID line, it’s already been done.

  • Anonymous

    Zach-a-sideburns, just curious, do you bend over more for Apple or AT&T??
    It’s really hard to tell….?

    • Anonymous

      Don’t be mad Zach. I bend over for my PAPI. He puts his pee pee in my pooper.

      • Anonymous

        Don’t worry Scroat aka Scroatsh¡t™ aka PAPINYC iMpersonator, I know you and Zach are secret gay crApple/AT&Transgender lovers.
        True Story™®©Π♠

        Subject: [bgr] Re: Verizon sold 2 million iPhones in Q3, 700,000 fewer than AT& T

      • Anonymous

        Wow, real mature to use | instead of I to impersonate someone.

  • Anonymous

    I know BGR hates Verizon.. but look at how CNN talks about the same story.

    “”Verizon is chipping away at AT&T’s iPhone lead”"

    It’s in CNN under Business.
     

  • Ashleigh

    Verizon customers are too busy buying LTE capable phones. Without LTE, the iPhone is becoming less and less desirable.

    • Zac Caslin

      Yeah because LTE is everywhere and uses very little battery. Can’t wait for that.

      • Ashleigh

        Verizon’s LTE coverage isnt far behind AT&T 3G service. And the battery life is no worse than an iPhone after the crappy iOS 5 update

      • Zac Caslin

        Battery last just as long with iOS 5. And you haven’t used an LTE phone if you don’t think it hogs battery. Your lucky to get 4 hours with LTE on.

      • RIMFAIL

        Watch yourself Ashleigh.

    • Anonymous

      You keep LTE, I’ll keep my battery life. Let’s revisit this subject when the iPhone 5 introduces a single radio LTE chip that doesn’t drain the battery.

      • Ashleigh

        iPhone 4 battery life with IOS 5 isn’t anything to brag about. I can’t even get through a full day now where I could before with iOS 4. Way to go apple.

  • http://www.sakurawalker.com iEric

    If @Norm_4G_LTE:disqus  and his buddies would have bought their iPhones from Verizon instead of AT&T it would have been more even.

  • Anonymous

    Interesting (but not surprising) that BGR didn’t mention that over half the smartphones sold by Verison that quarter were Android.

  • Anonymous

    But I thought the VZ iPhone was going to kill AT&T?  But they sold MORE??!??!? What???!?  The horror!

  • Ac

    Instead of Verzion complaining about the lack of a Verizon 5 iPhone – maybe they should allow current iPhone customers to upgrade at the subsidized prices – the same way that AT&T does!

  • Gerioneil

    That just means that 700,000 more people will have difficulty making and receiving phone calls using their iPhones on the AT&T network.

  • Zack

    Really. Who even cares if at&t sold more. Big deal.

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