Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), in a note to SEC, claims that it activated 9.8 million smartphones from October through December, compared to 7.7 million smartphones activated during the same period last year.
The largest carrier in the U.S says, in a note to SEC, there was a “higher mix of smartphones” sold during the holiday quarter.
Earlier, this week, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) also hinted at massive iPhone sales; with their “best-ever” sales of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Android smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2012. The number two service provider in the U.S. claims to have sold a record 10 million smartphones during the holiday quarter, beating its previous best of 9.4 million smartphones sold during the fourth quarter of 2011.
Verizon’s Q4 2011 iPhone activations as a percentage of smartphones sales were 56 percent or 4.3 million.
“We see the higher smartphone activations and higher iPhone mix as positive for Apple. Apple reports earnings on January 23, 2013 at 5pm ET. We reiterate our Outperform rating”, says a report from Wells Fargo Securities.
With fourth quarter reports on smartphone sales still to come from the rest of the top carriers in the United States, we can be sure that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will continue dominating the American smartphone market. In the last quarter, Apple commanded 58.1 percent of U.S. smartphone sales for the three largest carriers (AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) and Verizon), with AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) leading the pack, accounting for 70 to 80 percent of Apple’s total smartphone sales.
A report from AppleInsider, citing analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray says “that he believes AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) sold at least 8 million iPhones in its record holiday quarter. While Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., sales of the iPhone are typically greater at AT&T, because AT&T was Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for years.”
Research analytics firm, comScore, predicts that Android still dominate the overall U.S. smartphone market, with Android U.S. subscribers growing 1.1 percent between Aug. 2012 and Nov. 2012 to a total of 53.7 percent. For the same period, Apple gained 0.7 to 35 percent of U.S. subscribers.
The number from Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) will remain unclear until the company announces its official earnings on Jan. 22th. AT&T will also report their official numbers on Thursday, Jan. 24, a day after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announces their own earnings.
