Verizon has more than tripled its profit from this time last year as a result of activating 2.2 million Apple iPhones during this quarter alone. The Verizon iPhone began selling on February 10, 2011 and has been attracting new customers to Verizon at a rate rarely previously seen. Verizon only had 50 out of 90 days in the quarter to sell the iPhones but was on pace to sell almost four million iPhones while AT&T was only on pace to sell 3.6 million of theirs.
You can probably chalk that increase up to the Verizon iPhone being new and a novelty upon initial release just as the AT&T sales were originally huge when the device originally came out and the sales boom was entirely focused on their company. Sure there were other people that jailbroke the iPhones and went to T-Mobile but that’ll no longer be a problem as AT&T recently purchased their competitor.
AT&T’s network and 3G coverage have greatly improved recently but there are still coverage problems in cities like New York, where Verizon is very strong, and San Francisco. These are two of the most tech savvy cities in the country. Those are the kinds of places AT&T should be strongest but is currently struggling in due to their lackluster coverage.
Verizon on the other hand probably has the strongest signal for both 3G and general phone reception which gives it a clear advantage with the addition of the iPhone and now the HTC Thunderbolt to its stable. It also helps that Apple announced its iPhones increased in sales by 113%, or 18.65 million iPhones total sold that quarter, over this period last year likely due to the release on Verizon.
Competition will likely heat up once AT&T and T-Mobile fully join forces but for right now, you have to give the advantage in the phone wars to Verizon in no small part thanks to Apple and the iPhone.
