Verizon Wireless may have boasted 3.2 million iPhone activations in its first-quarter 2012 results last week, but onetime exclusive carrier AT&T is still the king, announcing 4.3 million units sold for Apple's handset in the first three months of this year.
AT&T has posted its Q1 2012 earnings, beating Wall Street estimates thanks to a 27.2 percent increase in its wireless operating income margin. In fact, wireless, wireline data (DSL, U-verse broadband) and managed services made up 78 percent of the company's total fortunes -- up 6.2 percent from the same quarter last year.
While overall smartphone sales also exceeded the first quarter of 2011 with 5.5 million, the real story comes with the company's disclosure that 4.3 million of those handsets were iPhones, with 21 percent of those customers new to AT&T. While that's a dip from last quarter's 7.6 million, keep in mind that the January through March period is historically slower after the holidays, and 4.3 million is still a bump from the same period last year, which saw 3.6 million iPhones activated.
Despite so many vocal critics of AT&T, customers appear to be staying put, with a postpaid wireless churn rate of only 1.1 percent, which Ma Bell calls the "lowest level in seven quarters." Roughly 30 percent of the company's smartphone customers are using a "4G-capable" device, but that doesn't mean much since the carrier includes "faux G" and LTE under the same shingle.
Although AT&T didn't break out iPads from the rest of its tablet offerings, the company claims Q1 2012 was "its best-ever first-quarter sales for branded computing subscribers," which includes tablets, tethering plans, aircards, mobile Wi-Fi hot spots and "other data-only devices." Ma Bell added 460,000 such devices to reach 5.8 million, a 70 percent bump in subscribers from a year ago.
These numbers don't show the results of AT&T's recent push with Windows Phone handsets led by the Nokia Lumia 900, which started shipping earlier this month. We'll have to wait for July to see those Q2 numbers -- meanwhile, Apple will have their own numbers out later on Tuesday, so stay tuned for those.
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