“Verizon Communications Inc.’s wireless subscriber rolls surged last quarter, but it was thanks to smartwatches and other wearables — not the phones and tablets that were once its mainstay,” Scott Moritz reports for Bloomberg. “Monthly subscribers climbed by 260,000 in the first quarter, the carrier said on Tuesday, marking its fourth straight period of growth.”
“The results renewed optimism that the largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier can cope with a maturing industry,” Moritz reports. “Even as the company lost phone and tablet subscribers, new customers using mobile service for Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. watches, vehicles and other applications offset the shortfall.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, they”re going for Samsung watches. All three of them. 3 million Apple Watches and 3 Samsung watches. Equal in the eyes of silly, vapid reporters who equate things that are not equal in the interest of “fairness.”
“The latest wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch Series 3, have their own network connections. That means they don’t need to link up with smartphones to communicate and — good news for carriers — require a separate wireless subscription,” Moritz reports. “Verizon added about 359,000 subscribers last quarter who are using watches, wearables and other devices. That helped make up for the loss of 24,000 phone customers and 75,000 tablet customers in the period. But watch customers pay $10 a month, compared with the $40 or more that phone customers typically shell out.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: YKBAWID.
SEE ALSO:
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple Watch sales could top 40-50 million units within next three years – March 27, 2018
Apple Watch dominates smartwatch market – March 1, 2018
Apple’s line of smartwatches outsold the entire Swiss watch industry last quarter – February 12, 2018
Apple Watch sets new all-time record for wearables shipments; ‘Apple has won the wearables game’ – analyst – February 7, 2018
Apple Watch sales momentum is growing; unit sales now rival those of Macintosh – January 23, 2018
Apple Watch Series 3 shipments predicted to rise to 23-25 million in 2018 – December 14, 2017
Apple Watch: The war for wearables is over, and Apple won – December 12, 2017
Canalys estimates Apple shipped 3.9 million Apple Watch units in Q317, despite strong demand outstripping supply – November 14, 2017
When Apple Watch surpassed iPod – November 8, 2017
This is a positive spin on a negative situation.
If gains and losses in subscribers continue each quarter, as just completed, for the next 3 quarters, Verizon will only add $19 Million to its annual revenue.
..and perhaps Verizon customers like myself will see better pricing in the future to keep me as a customer, or to attract new customers. Thank his for competitors like T Mobile.
You know because Apple Watch is doomed.
YKBAWID
Version used to really push free android tablets to unsuspecting victims. Now that android tablets are dead, we’re seeing the results in Verizon numbers.
Apple watch requires an ios device. So that’s $10 PLUS the $40 for the phone.
Reading that you would think you could get an Apple Watch without having an iPhone. I wish that was the case.