Verizon and AT&T haven’t announced their year-end quarterly earnings, but that isn’t stopping the carriers from crowing about how many smartphones they sold. The day after AT&T said it activated 10M smartphones, Verizon chimed in and confirmed it had activated 9.8M.
This admission by Verizon was first spotted by ZDNet in a recent 8-K form filed at the SEC. Inside the report, the carrier said it sold “a higher mix” of Apple iPhones in the quarter.
Verizon expects 2.1 million retail postpaid net additions, total smartphone activations of 9.8 million with a higher mix of Apple smartphones, and stronger indirect channel performance in the fourth quarter of 2012. This will result in fourth quarter 2012 segment EBITDA service margin to be slightly lower than that of fourth quarter 2011.
This isn’t surprising given the high-profile fall launch of the iPhone 5 and a price reduction on the still-capable iPhone 4S. Verizon will announce its fourth quarter earnings on January 22nd. The carrier typically says how many iPhones is has sold/activated, so we will have to wait a few weeks to see how these numbers shake out.