“Verizon on Friday revealed that iPhone demand was actually up in spring despite a full push from Android. The carrier activated 2.3 million iPhone 4s in spring, up from 2.2 million in winter,” Electronista reports. “The company added 2.2 million total cellphone customers, including 1.3 million of the retail subscribers core to the iPhone and 3G iPads; Apple’s support meant Verizon had the best subscriber growth in 2.5 years.”
“Data from the company suggested that, in spite of multiple device launches and high publicity, 4G Android phones hadn’t caught on in a significant way at the network,” Electronista reports. “Verizon sold a total of 1.2 million LTE-capable devices in the spring but had to split that across not just three separate Android phones, the HTC Thunderbolt, LG Revolution, and Samsung Droid Charge, but also include modems and routers. The data supports analyst claims that the iPhone was more popular at most stores as well as talk of high return rates due to poor 4G battery life.”
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Electronista reports, “The figures, combined with AT&T’s 3.6 million activations, show the iPhone relatively steady in the US in a quarter that can often see sales drop. They also come in spite of the iPhone 4 having reached its one-year anniversary and competing against much newer devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
Verizon’s earnings report press release is here.
MacDailyNews Take: As our own SteveJack explained two and a half years ago on December 23, 2009:
Google Android offers the same messy, inconsistent Windows PC “experience,” but without any cost savings, real or perceived… I’d call any Android device the “Poor Man’s iPhone,” but you have to spend just as much, if not more, to partake in an increasingly fragmented and inferior platform. There’s no real reason to choose Android, people settle for Android. “I’d have bought an iPhone if Verizon offered them.” Just look what’s happening in any country where iPhone is offered on multiple carriers. It’s a bloodbath.
Apple offers consistency to developers of both software and hardware. Just look at the vibrant third-party accessories market for iPhone vs. the Zune-like handful of oddball items for Android. If you make a case or a vehicle mount, does it pay to make 44 different Android accessories whose total addressable audience numbers under 1 million each, or to make one or two for what’s [now over 200] million iPhone/iPod touch devices? As Apple’s iPhone expands onto more and more carriers, Android’s only real selling point (“I’m stuck on Verizon or some other carrier that doesn’t offer the iPhone”) evaporates.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
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Verizon iPhone and iPad 2 cause Google’s Android to lose developer support to Apple’s iOS – July 14, 2011
Nielsen: Apple iPhone drives U.S. smartphone growth as Android stagnates – June 30, 2011
IDC: Apple becomes Australia’s number one mobile brand as Nokia plummets – June 27, 2011
40% of European smartphone buyers plan to next buy an Apple iPhone – June 24, 2011
Apple iPhone the top-selling smartphone at both Verizon and AT&T – June 22, 2011
Analyst: Android to continue to lose smartphone share – June 20, 2011
Multiple Android tablet peddlers give up, focus on 4- to 5 -inch smartphones – June 17, 2011
Analyst: Apple iPhone 4 still bestseller ‘by far’ at AT&T and Verizon; still outsells Android in U.S. – June 13, 2011
Nielsen finds decline in Android’s U.S. smartphone share – May 31, 2011
NPD: Apple iPhone 4 for Verizon best-selling mobile phone in U.S.; causes Android to lose share for first time since Q209 – April 28, 2011