Verizon CEO: iPhone 4 Sales are Strong, Mentions Apple and LTE

Verizon Wireless confirmed that sales of the iPhone 4 were the most successful in their history. This information comes from a recent interview with Dan Mead, Verizon CEO, in The Wall Street Journal. As you may have noticed, the Verizon iPhone launch didn't have long lines at either the carrier's retail outlets or the Apple stores. According to Mead, that wasn't an indication of sales at all, from the WSJ interview:

Mr. Mead said more than 60% of iPhone sales occurred online. That heavy activity online contributed to short lines on launch day, which were noted by many news outlets. “If we had not done online, you would have seen a much different flow in the pictures,” he said. In a few days, the company will double the number of stores that sell the iPhone, going from 4,000 to 8,000.

Mead also thought it would be nice to mention the 4G LTE network coming to Verizon. Mead hinted that Apple was interested in LTE technology and working on devices compatible with Verizon's 4G network:

You’ll see more coming from Apple on LTE,” he said. “They understand the value proposition of LTE and I feel very confident that they are going to be a part of it.

This is contrary to what Apple has mentioned in the past. At the iPhone launch, COO Tim Cook confirmed the Cupertino company is not yet ready to adopt 4G technology stating, "the first-generation LTE chipsets force some design compromises, some of which we wouldn't make." To me, this makes sense. LTE phones are relatively large and heavy. Size, reliability, and power consumption are a priority for Apple. Not to mention, LTE coverage is not ubiquitous yet. I don't think we'll see LTE iPhones until 2012. However, the iPhone 5 just might surprise me.

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