Verizon today became the first of the major U.S mobile carriers to report financial results for the third quarter for 2013, giving the first piece of data to help shed light on Apple's early iPhone 5s and 5c sales other than an Apple press release announcing nine million units sold on the launch weekend.
The carrier revealed during its conference call that it activated approximately 3.9 million iPhones during the quarter, representing just over half of Verizon's 7.6 million total smartphone activations during the quarter, and up from 3.1 million iPhone activations in the year-ago quarter. Verizon also noted in the call that it encountered iPhone supply constraints in September, which will also result in some carryover in sales to the fourth quarter.
Verizon also reported that it has now covered "over 99% of its 3G footprint" with LTE, as the network is now in over 500 markets with more small towns being added in the coming months. Overall, the carrier stated that there were 6.8 million 4G LTE device activations on its network in the quarter, up 21.1% when compared to the year-ago quarter.
Finally, Verizon announced that smartphones now account for more than 67% of the Verizon Wireless retail postpaid customer phone base, up from 64% at the end of the second-quarter in 2013.
Thursday September 17, 2026 4:17 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
In iOS 27, available now, CarPlay gets its biggest update in years, but some features depend on what type of car you have rather than your iPhone model. Some of the biggest additions won't do anything in the vast majority of vehicles on the road today. Here's how the new features pan out.
Works in Any CarPlay Vehicle
Custom widgets: In iOS 27, CarPlay is no longer limited to Apple's handful ...
Wednesday September 16, 2026 8:53 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 have hardware changes that allow for faster charging, but you will need to use the new version of the Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger included in the box in order to achieve this boost. If you need extra ones for your own charging stands or travel or so forth, Apple released the new version of the charger on its online store last week, with...
Wednesday September 16, 2026 1:32 pm PDT by Juli Clover
The iOS 27.2 beta that Apple released today adds a feature that reminds you it's your anniversary when you call someone, as long as you've added the date in the Contacts app.
On the date of your anniversary, when you go to call the person, you'll see a reminder that it's an important day so you don't forget to say something. The anniversary alert uses Call Context, a feature Apple added in...
"Increase those executive bonuses for a job well done!"
"Can we tighten the tiers and/or arbitrarily re-jigger our offers to squeeze more money out of the lemmings?"
"And someone call Apple and encourage them to make some more "major apps" like iRadio that encourages data burn through cellular data tiers faster than ever. I want that bonus to go up again next year"
"What! Podunk, <state> is trying to install city-wide free wifi? Quick sick the lawyers on that and let's make some strategic campaign contributions to kill that initiative."
I'm thinking of making the jump from an iPhone 4 on AT&T to a 5s (or next year a 6) on Verizon's LTE network. When you're on LTE, can you do simultaneous phone & data? I use that all the time.
What happens if you lose your LTE signal? Does this happen often?
Any help is appreciated.
We were on AT&T for years, but just didn't have any kind of reception here at the World HQ, and we wanted to bail on our landline service. We switched to Verizon at the time we purchased our iPhone 5s last year (that's 2 iPhone 5, not iPhone 5s :D ) and we now get decent-to-good voice (AT&T was _none_), and the LTE coverage everywhere I go is fantastic (Northeast coast of Florida, VA/DC, Atlanta). I also noted the voice quality is much better (comparing good vs. good signal), but we also swapped phones, so the iP5 may just be much better in that capacity.
Once in LTE, I really haven't seen it drop, and that's while doing things like remote access to servers, sharing code, email, etc., really beating on it with a lot of concurrent services (that are connection sensitive, so any outage would be noted).
No to simultaneous voice and data, but you know what? It hasn't really been an issue for me. If I'm around the homestead, I get voice+ data when I'm on WiFi, when I'm tethering, I'm usually using a different communication mechanism (iMessage, G+/Hangouts, EMail), and when I'm using just the phone, I'm either doing something data related, or making a quick voice call. That was a big hangup for me about switching, I was worried it would interfere, but about a month or two before we made the switch, I took note of how many times I needed it (and AT&T I could've done it), and the answer was none ... none times :D
The price for us was the same out of pocket, but technically better since the shared data plan includes tethering on both phones (though that doesn't really come up TBH). We're doing a shared 4GB data, unlimited text/talk, all the other odds and end services.
Using the internet while you talk on the phone is overrated.
I use it all the time on AT&T. In fact, I use it all the time I'm sure without realizing it. If I had to switch to Verizon, that's when I'd notice how much I use it.
Me on my iPhone on AT&T with my brother: "What time is the game tomorrow? Oh wait, let me check. It's at 5:00 PM. What time should I pick you up?"
Me on my iPhone on Verizon with my brother: "What time is the game tomorrow? I'll check and call you back".
Verizon today became the first of the major U.S mobile carriers to report financial results for the third quarter for 2013, giving the first piece of data to help shed light on Apple's early iPhone 5s and 5c sales other than an Apple press release announcing nine million units sold on the launch weekend.
