Hot on the heels of Apple’s Q4 results come AT&T’s Q3 report, and the iPhone-related news keeps getting better and better, including a record 3.2 million activations, 40% of which went to new customers.
And the records didn’t stop there. Highest Q3 net subscriber gain, best ever Q3 churn rate, largest quarterly increase of integrated devices (like iPhone) in history, and 33.6% increase in data revenue.
What’s astonishing is this growth persists despite widespread, ongoing — almost farcical at this point — reports of poor network experience for iPhone users. Imagine if AT&T could build out infrastructure to meet demand in areas like San Francisco and New York?
And how happy are they Verizon appears to be out of the iPhone picture, at least for now?
We’ll be beginning TiPb’s live coverage just before 2pm PT/5pm ET, but Apple has already released their results, and they include 7.4 million iPhones and 10.2 million iPods (they don’t break out numbers for the iPod touch) sold in Q4 2009.
“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”
TiPb will be providing live coverage of the call, so join us back here at start time.
A Canadian buffet of Rogers news today, with Q2 financial results, an update on the current out-of-stock situation at Rogers, Fido, and Apple Canada, and the beginning of an HSPA+ super-fast 3G rollout.
First up, Bloomberg (via MDN) reports that Rogers that ARPU (average revenue per user) was down $1.47 as customers curbed long-distance and travel, while total sales rose 3.1%. As to the iPhone in particular, the introduction of the iPhone 3GS and $99 price point for the iPhone 3G helped Rogers add 148,000 subscribers this quarter.
Second, TUAW reports that Rogers, their subsidiary Fido, and Apple Stores (which just began carrying the iPhone in Canada on June 19) are all in short supply or completely sold out of iPhones. Given that Apple reported 5.2 million sold last quarter amid shortages, and is planning to fill out 80 countries by the end of the year, we can only repeat Dieter’s abject shock at the continuing sales volumes…
Third, and funnest (TM iPod touch),Engadget Mobile says Rogers is ready to rock and roll with HSPA+ at 21Mbps. Zoom. Zoom. The GTA will get initial love, though Rogers says it will expand quickly to other cities. Since the iPhone 3GS only supports up to 7.2Mbps, we’re not likely to benefit directly, though we only get half that currently so who knows…
Join Dieter and Rene for Apple’s Q3 iPhone results, and Chris, James, and Rene for App Store redux, more third gen iPod touch, and iTablet rumors. Listen in!
Apple’s exclusive US iPhone carrier, AT&T has announced their Q2 2009 financials, and when it comes to the iPhone, more is… well, more.
2.4 million iPhones activated during the quarter
(Apple sold 5.2 million, so that obviously doesn’t include international or as-yet unactivated iPhones).
1.4 million new customers.
3.4 billion (with a b!) in data revenue.
The downside? AT&T had to swallow those iPhone subsidies up front, leading in part to a 15% fall year over year:
“Increased operating expenses in the second quarter of 2009, in part, reflect volume-based acquisition costs associated with the success of the iPhone 3GS launch, which started June 19. AT&T’s iPhone customer characteristics are attractive, with (average revenue per user) significantly higher than and churn rates well below the company’s postpaid averages; as a result, robust iPhone demand drives strong recurring revenues and substantial long-term value. AT&T iPhone subscribers, both new customers and upgrades, take two-year contracts with data packages. As a result, robust iPhone demand drives strong recurring revenues and substantial long-term value.”
Translation: It cost them a few hundred bucks per user now, but those users are giving them back a hundred bucks a month for the next 24 months. Do. The. Math.
The big picture remains, however, that AT&T needs the iPhone to keep customers, get new customers, and earn big money off those high value customers.
Apple announced their Q3, 2009 financial results today.
- Press release is live: The Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion, with 5.2 Million iPhone sales in the quarter. (That makes an install base of 45 million plus iPhone OS devices, including iPod touch). Boom.
“We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.”
Apple also hosted an accompanying conference call, highlights after the break!
The Wall Street Journal (via MacRumors) published a report stating that while Apple’s iPhone, and RIM’s BlackBerry make up only 3% of mobile phone sales last year, the gobbled up a huge 35% take of the profits. iPhone specifically was pegged at 1% of sales and 20% of profit. Boom! indeed.
Says Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff:
The disparity will become even starker this year when the two will take 5% of the market in unit terms but 58% of total operating profits.
While feature phone maker Nokia can compete due to vast economies of scale, their profits have been declining, as have Sony Ericsson. Palm’s Pre is seen as something of a wildcard, depending on developer support and distribution reach.
For their part, Apple is set to announce Q3 results tomorrow, July 21, at 5pm ET. TiPb will provide our usual coverage of the conference call, especially as results pertain to the iPhone.
While we wait on Apple’s quarterly results call scheduled for later today, it’s worth noting that the iPhone’s only US carrier just posted their own financials and things are still looking good for our favorite little pocket universe denter:
AT&T said 1.6 million Apple iPhone customers had activated services on the AT&T network during the quarter, more than 40 percent of which were new to the telephone operator.
Some analysts worried that the subsidies AT&T was paying for the iPhone were too costly, others that AT&T was too reliant on the iPhone:
They estimated about three-quarters of [AT&T's] net new monthly bill-paying customers were iPhone users.
AT&T reported on their own quarterly earnings today, the highlights according to Fortune (via MacRumors):
AT&T has activated 4.3 million iPhone 3Gs since its launch, 1.9 million in Q4 alone — more than double its iPhone activations one year earlier.
The average revenue from Phone users is 60% higher than the typical AT&T customer — thanks to that $30 per month data fee. Their heavy use of Web services helped drive AT&T wireless data use up 51.2% year to year, which as reader Jon in Brentwood, Calif., points out is not necessarily a good thing.
About 40% of the iPhone activations this quarter were new AT&T customers, either buying their first cellphone or switching from another carrier.
The churn rate — the percentage of customers who drop AT&T’s service — among iPhone owners is significantly lower than the rest of the network, sharply reducing marketing costs.
They also note that 1.9 million iPhone 3G’s activated in its second quarter on the market is nearly double the 1 million BlackBerry Storm’s activated by Verizon in it’s debut quarter…
