Apple iPhone No Longer Verizon's Bestselling Smartphone? [Update]

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Fortune reports that Apple's iPhone has dropped from the top selling smartphone position in Verizon retail stores for the first time since the carrier started selling the device. The news comes by way of a research note from William Blair's Anil Doradla.

Doradla attributes the iPhone's fall from grace less to the usual slowdown in advance of a new model than to Verizon's aggressive marketing of competing 4G devices, particularly Motorola's Droid RAZR MAXX, which the carrier is selling for $299 with a 2-year contract.

The results are based on "channel checks" from the April-May-June quarter of 2012. The iPhone was reportedly dethroned by the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, but remains in the number two spot ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Verizon first started carrying the iPhone in February 2011. Verizon benefited from pent up demand at launch and the subsequent launch of the iPhone 4S in October of that same year. The iPhone 4S is now 8 months since it's release with rumors that the next generation iPhone will launch this fall.

Update: A separate analyst claims that the iPhone 4S remains the top selling smarpthone at Verizon.

But that's not the case, according to Walkley, who said while the latest Razr is "gaining ground," it "hasn't caught iPhone." His own research has found the iPhone 4S as the top selling smartphone at Verizon, as well as AT&T and Sprint, for the entirety of 2012 thus far.

Top Rated Comments

Roessnakhan Avatar
Roessnakhan
143 months ago
With the Droid RAZR MAXX both having LTE and amazing battery life, that's no surprise.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Val-kyrie Avatar
Val-kyrie
143 months ago
Not Surprising

Our local Verizon store didn't even mention the iPhone when I went into the store to sign up for a plan; in fact, I had to ask them about the iPhone because they were only pushing Droids.

[Edit: There wasn't even an iPhone on display in the store.]
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SprodeBoy Avatar
SprodeBoy
143 months ago
I see this as good news. Sure I prefer Apple over everything else in the terms of smartphones but competition is always good and will keep Apple on its feet trying to make the next great thing.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MACdaddy859 Avatar
MACdaddy859
143 months ago
Perhaps if Apple updated their extremely outdated phone every once in a while...

Go ahead and give me a thumbs down, it's true. Apple is seriously dragging their feet with the iPhone. The 4S was an abomination. I mean come on, im using an iPhone 4 that i purchased in June 2010 the day it came out. I have it jailbroken and running siri, there's no real difference between my 2 year old phone and apple's most up to date phone. It's pathetic, and no i don't consider a bump in processor speed to be a major update. In addition to that, the screen IS too damn small whether you want to admit it or not. If the new iphone isn't significantly improved and changed, im going android. And this is coming from an apple fanboy.

I agree with you man. Thumbs up
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scotty321 Avatar
scotty321
143 months ago
1. Um, Verizon salespeople are TRAINED to NOT LET ANY CUSTOMERS WALK OUT THE DOOR WITH an iPhone. Have any of you actually tried to walk into a Verizon store and purchase an iPhone? It is IMPOSSIBLE. I've tried it on 8 occasions, and Fortune Magazine documents this as well. It is IMPOSSIBLE to do so. Go ahead... I DARE YOU to walk into a Verizon store and try to purchase an iPhone.
2. Furthermore, Verizon salespeople make $75 commission on every NON-iPhone that they sell, but they only make a $5 commission on every iPhone they sell.
3. Verizon salespeople are BERATED by their managers and given WARNINGS if they sell an iPhone.

So it makes perfect sense that the iPhone isn't their best-selling device. This has been Verizon's plan all along.

WHY?

Because once people love the iPhone, they are loyal to the phone and not the carrier. The iPhone relegates Verizon to the dumb pipe that they are, and they don't like that one bit.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
carbonrain Avatar
carbonrain
143 months ago
"The news comes by way of a research note from William Blair's Anil Doradla."

Anil Doradla... ...is an anagram for All Android... something's fishy...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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