“Sprint Nextel, the nation’s No. 3 cellphone carrier, on Wednesday reported a net loss income in the fourth quarter of $1.3 billion, or 43 cents a share, in contrast to a net loss of $929 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company said revenue climbed 5 percent to $8.7 billion,” Brian X. Chen reports for The New York Times. “Wall Street analysts had forecast a loss of 38 cents a share and revenue of $8.7 billion, according to a survey by FactSet.”
“Sprint’s earnings illustrate the impact of Apple’s iPhone on the network. The October-to-December period was the first quarter that the company offered Apple’s smartphone, which has been a best-seller for its rivals AT&T and Verizon. The company said it sold 1.8 million iPhones. The iPhone is crucial ammunition for Sprint in its battle for new subscribers,” Chen reports. “While smartphone sales are soaring in the industry, the number of new customers signing up for phone contracts has been shrinking because so many people already have cellphones. Sprint’s bid to lure subscribers to its network is its unlimited data plan, which AT&T and Verizon no longer offer.”
Chen reports, “It appears to be working. Sprint said it added 1.6 million net subscribers in the October-to-December period, its best quarterly gain in six years and up from the previous quarter, when it added 1.3 million subscribers. Forty percent of its iPhone sales were to new customers.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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