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AT&T Activates 1.6 Million iPhone 3Gs in First Quarter of 2009

AT&T today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2009, and among the highlights was the announcement that AT&T had activated 1.6 million iPhone 3Gs during the quarter. Continuing a trend seen in previous quarters, customers new to AT&T accounted for 40% of iPhone 3G activations.

In the first quarter, AT&T's iPhone 3G activations totaled more than 1.6 million, more than 40 percent of them for customers who were new to the company. AT&T's U.S. iPhone exclusive continues to deliver subscribers with ARPUs (average monthly revenues per subscriber) that are approximately 1.6 times higher and churn rates that are significantly lower than the company's overall postpaid subscriber base.

While AT&T's 1.6 million activations were down from 1.9 million in fourth quarter of 2008 and 2.4 million in the third quarter of 2008, the decline was not unexpected given the iPhone's product cycle. Overall, AT&T saw a net gain of 1.2 million wireless subscribers for the quarter. Wireless revenue rose 9.8% year-over-year and made up 42.1% of AT&T's total revenue, up from 38.5% in the year-ago quarter.

Apple will release its earnings report for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2009 later today.

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37 months ago
AT&T needs Apple so it's likely that they will offer serious concessions to Apple in order to extend the iPhone contract.
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37 months ago
like 1/20th of australias population :p
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37 months ago
This is why AT&T will be holding on to their US iPhone exclusivity with both hands and their teeth.
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37 months ago

AT&T needs Apple so it's likely that they will offer serious concessions to Apple in order to extend the iPhone contract.


Exactly. The other providers in the U.S. must still be kicking themselves for being so short-sighted as to the iPhone's demand.

I would think Apple holds all the cards in any upcoming negotiations.
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37 months ago
not bad, at least its not a huge decline
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37 months ago

This is why AT&T will be holding on to their US iPhone exclusivity with both hands and their teeth.


Agreed. I'd be really surprised if they let it go, but this could mean better features to AT&T users if Apple negotiates to force their network to be faster, or offer additional features.

"We'll stick with you if you do x, y, and z." Not that simple, obviously, but Apple could be in a leveraged position to help the consumers.
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37 months ago

Exactly. The other providers in the U.S. must still be kicking themselves for being so short-sighted as to the iPhone's demand.

.


Perhaps, but Verizon (and Sprint) had the added hurdle of getting apple to make a CDMA version.
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37 months ago
http://poweredbysteam.com/2009/01/iphone-sales-by-quarter/

First quarter Iphone sales where 4.6 million so how can only 1.6 million have been activated?

Is the site I checked incorrect?

I hope not. According to powestream 11.5 million Iphones in 2008, with Q1 sales being almost double that of 2008. If that is the case than I could definetely see them selling at least 15 million Iphones in 09, bad economy be damned.
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37 months ago
This is surprising to me. My friend gave me his iPhone 3G (he likes his blackberry better). So, I checked into the rates at ATT. What an f-ing rip.

Right now I'm on an 8 year old contract with T-Mobile. It is an 850 minute Family plan. My wife and I are the only ones on it. It costs us $69.99 plus taxes, surcharges, etc. and usually comes out to about $90/mo.

ATT only offers a 700 and 1400 minute plan. The 700 plan is $69.99 plus $30.00 for data, $99.99 total. Same price as my current T-Mobile plan for 150 less minutes a month..., and a 42% extra charge for data? Um, huh? Okay... but we really need more than 700 minutes. The 1400 minute plan is $89.99 plus $30.00 for data, $119.99 total. A little less than DOUBLE what we're paying now... just for data on an iPhone? And thats BEFORE the taxes, surcharges, etc. I'm not doing that.

Since we've been with T-Mobile for 8 years, I decided to go check them out. They still offer our current plan for $69.99/mo... but now with 1000 minutes instead of 850.

Sorry ATT. Wake the F up. I can jailbreak this thing and save a bunch of money. Oh no, I'll miss visual voicemail. Up the 700 minute plan to 1000 minutes and mabye we can talk (although 42% extra for data is a RIP).
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37 months ago
Way to go. Sounds pretty good to me. Everywhere I look I see an iPhone anyway.
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