AT&T recently released a very positive third-quarter earnings statement. The reason given for such positive results will likely come as no surprise to readers of this site.
As reported on website ModMyI.com, AT&T's second-quarter earnings, which included only seven days of iPhone 4 sales, was $4 billion. That is 26% higher than the same time last year which covered the iPhone 3GS launch. According to AT&T, they activated 3.2 million iPhones in the second quarter; a company record. Of those activations, 27% were customers who were new to AT&T.
Apple and AT&T report that iPhone 4 pre-orders were 10 times the number of iPhone 3GS preorders just a year before. While pre-orders alone are not a good indicator of sales, the fact that the iPhone 4 is still on back order through almost every outlet is a good sign that demand is still high.
While antennagate and the delay of white iPhones continue to be black eyes on iPhone sales, AT&T is still confident in the growth of their subscriber base and revenue. AT&T has seen growth in every business sector. In fact, AT&T has reached over 90 million subscribers and expects that number to increase as the year progresses. They have raised their full-year outlook in the wake of these results. While they previously expected their financial results to be in the "stable-to-improved" range, they have now updated their expectations across the board to "strong."
In such trying economic times, having such high expectations for a company's financial success is almost unheard of. Maybe the iPhone 4 really has "changed everything again."
