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Verizon today announced financial results for the third quarter of 2011, and as noted by AllThingsD in a live blog of the conference call following the release, the carrier revealed iPhone sales of two million units for the quarter. The number is a slight decline from the 2.3 million activations seen in the previous quarter, a 13% drop that Verizon attributed to launch timing for the iPhone 4S.
Verizon Wireless added 882,000 subscribers on contract-based plans. That was a slowdown from iPhone-fueled results earlier in the year -- Verizon started selling the coveted smartphone in February. Analysts had expected about 950,000 additions in the quarter.
Analysts were in general caught flat-footed by the effect of the delayed iPhone launch, underestimating how much people were holding back.
AT&T yesterday announced 2.7 million iPhone activations during the third quarter, still ahead of Verizon but a more significant 25% drop from its 3.6 million activations in the previous quarter.
Top Rated Comments
More surprising is that people continue to doubt Apple at every turn. It's gotten a bit humorous. Take it or leave it: Apple has been making all the right moves. And shows no signs of slowing. It's actually quite difficult to fully appreciate in real-time. Looking back, I suspect it will seem so much more remarkable.