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?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Q3 2009 Financial Results — 3.2 Million iPhones Activated, 40% to New Customers

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.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Q4 Conference Call Live Blog — 7.4 Million iPhones Sold!

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…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Rogers Canada Roundup: Q2 Financial Results, Out of Stock, and 21Mbps HSPA+ Testing

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News

• Apple Q3 2009 Conference Call – 5.2 Million iPhones Sold
• iPhone and iPod touch: Now with 45 Million Unit Install Base
• Apple: We Knew Traditional iPod Sales Would Decline, That’s Why We Developed iPhone
• Dear Apple: How About that Premium App Store?
• iPhone — 20% Profit Share of Mobile Industry?
• AIM Push Problems – Hacktivated iPhones to Blame?
• Third Generation iPod touch to get Camera… and Microphone?
• No Promo Codes for Apps Rated 17+ — Including Browsers?!
• Developer: Serious Doubts About App Store, Does Apple Care?
• Rumor: Subsidized Apple iTablet Coming to Verizon this Year?
• UPDATED: Amazon Remote Wipes Kindle Copies of 1984, Animal Farm — Redefines Irony
• Microsoft Store to Compete With Apple Store — By Not Selling Anything

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TiPb Presents iPhone Live! #20 — 5.2 Million Sold!

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.

[via Apple Insider]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Q2 Financials: Sold 2.4 Million iPhones… but Had to Pay for Them Upfront

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!

(Updates posted in reverse chronological order from latest or oldest)

• And we’re done!
• App Store pricing. Race to the bottom with $0.99 apps? Can Apple help sort out quality vs. quantity? Tim Cook: has ideas on categorizing Apps differently. Today does it based on type. As App Store grows, makes sense to have lower prices but that’s up to developers.
• iPhone sales, anything on new activations vs. upgrades? Tim Cook: Can’t share, confidential to carriers.
• iPhone in China? Tim Cook: Nothing to add today but continues to be priority project. Hopes to be there within a year.
• Supply constraints to effect international rollout? When will it balance? Tim Cook: Won’t balance in short term but won’t give prediction. Too hard to judge demand without supply. Vast majority will be selling 3GS by end of quarter, may move date by a week or more.
• iPod touch user base, how many upgraded? Tim Cook: a good number, won’t be specific. Priced aggressively. Want to get platform out there, good for ecosystem, developers. Try to get people to upgrade.
• Competitors tinkering with pre-paid model. Apple interested? Tim Cook: Apple doing that as well in markets that are predominantly pre-pay. Apple has lots to learn. Still a beginner. Can make improvements. Model works well in post-paid, but pre-paid could be interesting. Have multiple things going on. Hope to improve going forward.
• Asking about iPhone activations. US represents 40% of activations. Shouldn’t international side pick up, grow faster? Tim Cook: don’t release sales by geography. Smartphones in general sell better in post-pay environment. Not unique to Apple, reality of market.
• Follow up on netbook. Think an emerging market for a truly mobile device, larger screen, do more than with iPhone? Tim Cook: Never discount anything, won’t answer about new products. Customers want full featured notebooks. Apple delivers those, delivers value. Customers very happy. Current netbooks are very slow, software is old, don’t have robust computing experience, lack horsepower, small screens, cramped keyboards. People not happy. Apple will only play where they can deliver products that are innovative, proud of.
• Will Apple invest in NOC to take pressure off carrier? Cook: No plans to do so. When they entered business, they came to conclusion they could deliver world class handset, deliver something revolutionary. Other people have better skills at networks. Apple working with them as partners.
• AP asks if growth of Apps constrained by network capacity of carrier partners? Tim Cook: better question for them. Without singling out [AT&T] Cook sees them investing in making better networks, happy with rising ARPU, lower churn. Changes customer acquisition. Thinks they will continue to make investments to deliver faster networks.
• Has outgrown market 18/19 quarters. Cook thinks that means they have right approach.
• Asking about netbooks. Tim Cook: Apple’s goal is not to build most computers but to build the best. Will play at whatever price point they can build the best. Don’t see a way to build a great product at $399/$499. Thinks customers, many customers, become disenchanted after they buy them. Continue to focus on building best and giving tremendous value.
• Additional distribution and pricing model needed to sustain growth? Tim Cook: Just took major change with intro of $99 product. Reason to do that was view of elasticity. Working hard to continue expanding distribution in countries they’re in, (where it makes sense) and adding new countries. Still large markets left uncovered. [China?]
• RBC Capital asking about competitive App Stores and software. How to out innovate in user experience and leadership? Tim Cook: Won’t talk about future plans. Summarize last 30 days: shipped iPhone 3.0, App Store now available in 77 countries. Install base more than 45 million (iPhone + iPod touch). Quotes App Store stats. 65,000 apps compares RIM/Nokia, Android. Substantial lead in Apps and innovation. Years ahead of other people.
• Asking why iPod channel was reduced. Tim Cook: to support new Shuffle and easter holiday, they increased. When that was done, they decreased, and also demand was lower and iPhone cannibalized. Shuffle, nano, and classic demand also lowering (”classic MP3 player market”). Still in target range, however.
• Apple benefitting from higher iPhone revenue. [No doubt!]
• Asking if $99 iPhone 3G actually served as traffic driver for iPhone 3GS. Was that it’s role, or is it really part of iPhone story. Tim Cook: Focused on total iPhone story. Too early to tell ultimate mix due to only shipping in 18/80 countries and supply constraints. Also upgrades happen early, upgraders likely to pick newer version.
• Talking about $999 MacBook vs. cheaper MacBook Pro pricing mix. Tim Cook: competitive info.
• Asking why Snow Leopard was priced so low. Tim Cook: Even better Leopard, redefines 90% of projects. Something about not even Windows building in (Exchange support?). Priced aggressively so all users can upgrade. Hoping they do. Expect to ship later this quarter.
• Talking about MacBook pricing elasticity. When they can do it at lower prices, they will but won’t put Apple brand on products that don’t innovate.
• Asking about 5.2 million iPhone sales in Q3 and supplies still constrained. How’s inventory. Tim Cook: Flat sequentially. What that means is selling more units at the end, don’t have a channel loaded. Haven’t seen anything like it. About 1.83 million inventory, including in transit, invoice, demo — counted conservatively.
• Talking about reduced margins due to back to school promotions, lower MacBook prices, etc.
• Questions on guidance and margins…
• Follow up question on progress in enterprise accounts? Tim Cook: Growing interest with release of iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 due in part to new hardware encryption and security policies. Doing best in corporate and government who allow individual purchases. 20% of Fortune 100 customers bought 10,000 iPhone, some have bought 25,000. In over 300 higher education institutions.
• David Baily asks how $99 iPhone is doing. Change in mix since launch? Tim Cook: Acceleration of total unit sales, can’t tell exact mix since it’s competitive data. iPhone 3GS supply is still constrained, so demand very robust.
• Nothing to announce about U-Verse, 3G in laptops. Happy with AT&T relationship.
• Tim Cook answering Gene Munster on how carrier relationships will evolve: most of the carriers they’re doing business with are thrilled with lower churn and higher ARPU. Customers demanding iPhone. Looking to expand.
• Closing canned remarks. Can has Q&A soon?
• $500M prepayment to Toshiba for NAND flash memory
• 31.1 BILLION in cash on hand(!)
• More financial stuff…
• 1.5 billion in revenue for Apple Stores.
• iTunes experience getting better. 8 billion songs purchased.
• Didn’t recognize iPhone revenue until iPhone 3.0 became available on June 17.
• 1.69 billion from iPhone, accessories, carriers, etc.
• App Store stats: 65,000 apps. 3.0 will create even more innovative apps.
• Continuing to roll out 3GS to 80 countries this summer.
• iPhone 5.2 million sold in June quarter! 1 Million iPhone 3GS in 3 day launch. Cannot make enough to meet demand. Working to address this.
• 70% of US market. iPod top selling MP3 player. Gaining share in almost every country tracked.
• iPod touch grew 30% year over year.
• 50% of iPod buyers are still new buyers, even in established markets
• Traditional MP3 players declined, as internally forecast. Reason why they developed iPod touch and iPhone. They’re cannibalizing themselves. Business will still last for years.
• 10.2 million iPods. Down from last quarter. Reduced channel inventory and sell-through declines.
• 13% increase in laptop sales. Customers favorable on new portables.
• 2.6 million Macs. Sales increased 100K units over prior year.
• Lots of financial info we shan’t bore you with. Read press link below…
• Record June revenue. Highest non-Holiday revenue in history.
• Call’s about to start. Will update as news is announced.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Q3 2009 Conference Call – 5.2 Million iPhones Sold

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.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone — 20% Profit Share of Mobile Industry?

UPDATING ON LIVE CONFERENCE CALL:

• Waiting for call to start, any minute now. Will post updates only when major iPhone-ish news is announced (or inner fanboy takes over).
• Covering Macs
• iPod touch growth, customers embrace superior features and apps.
• US market share for MP3 players 70%, gaining share in most international markets
• UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, China, growing.
• iTunes store had good quarter.
• DRM free now all 4 major labels and indies.
• App Store unparalleled succes.
• 35,000 apps, +20,000 since last call
• Almost at 1 billion downloads

More after the break!

• App Store key differentiator
• Still believe they are years ahead of competition.
• iPhone sold 3.8 million, 123% increase from a year ago
• iPhone reach now in 81 countries
• iPhone 3.0 and SDK being covered, highlighting features…
• (We’ve already done our massive coverage)
• Delaying recognition of revenue on all iPhones sold since March 17 delayed until 3.0 is released this summer. Prior sales not effected.
• Covering Apple Stores
• Margins 36%, driven by commodity costs being lower, sales of higher margin products like software and accessories, lower freight costs
• Cash for short term is 28.9 billion (!)
• Going to conserve capital
• Covering projections for next quarter…
• Predicting 7.7 – 7.9 billion (includes delay in iPhone revenue recognition)
• Can’t wait to get iPhone 3.0 into customer’s hands this summer. (er… and other stuff )
• (Giving iPhone the most love?)
• Q&A now beginning…
• Talking component prices, NAND memory prices might be going up…
• Bank of Montreal in the house! Asking about cash flow being down… snore.
• Talking about sales of desktops, laptops…
• Cook: For Apple is about doing great products, Netbooks are cramped, junky, small, not a consumer experience and not something they would put the Mac brand on. Not interested in it, don’t think long-term customers are interested either. Watching space, however.
• Customers looking for netbooks might want to look at iPhone, iPod touch
• If Apple can find innovative product that makes contribution, they have some ideas, pipeline looks fantastic.
• Netbooks – stretch to call them computers — are propping up unit sales for others.
• App Store mix between paid and free, between iPhone and iPod touch? Apple doesn’t disclose.
• Key growth to iPod this quarter despite economics, iPod touch more than doubled year over year.
• iPhone + iPod touch now 37 million units
• Tim Cook: we’re not economists (!)
• Question: Survey says #1 reason people don’t buy iPhone
• Cook: AT&T good partner, #1 carrier, very happy to do business with them. Have put full weight behind iPhone. No plan to change it.
• Cook: Verizon is on CDMA, chose from beginning of iPhone to focus on one phone for world, which means GSM route. CDMA has no life to it after a point in time.
• Cook: No iPhone in China yet, would like to be in next year. Nothing to announce today.
• Steve Jobs?
• Oppenheimer: Look forward to Steve returning at the end of June.
• Talking Mac, desktop, “things I can’t talk about” in pipeline. Years ahead, leader in space. Won’t leave price umbrella.
• Talking about currency values now. Snore.
• iTunes upgrades of music to DRM free? Oppenheimer: too soon to tell.
• Very strong growth in music, video, apps
• Walmart for iPhone?
• Cook: Strong partner for iPod, expanded for iPhone. Believe they provide extended reach into areas not hitting before. Pleased with results so far, but early going and not much to report.
• iPhone now being sold in almost 50,000 storefronts in 81 countries. Sizable presence and space.
• Channel inventory, 1.57 million units in inventory last quarter. Apple very conservative in count. 100,000 demos in 50,000 storesfronts, count units in transit from factory not yet for sale. 100,000 units last quarter. Also count inventory all the way to storefront.
• First June quarter with worldwide spread. Saw channel inventory in countries they were in at beginning of Dec. quarter fell at beginning, new countries added net at 80,000. Now 1.83 million units.
• Net net, Apple very comfortable with inventory, people want more.
• What steps Apple taking to ensure iPhone apps can be discovered, different from music discovery?
• Oppenheimer: We include easy to find top 50, 100, paid/free. Expanding genres. Team has done fantastic job making apps easy, fun to discover.
• Any unusual patterns in app sales vs. music?
• Oppenheimer: Hitting 1 billion in 9 months, customers having fun. Games are quite popular. 1 reason why iPod touch has been success.
• Palm Pre?
• Cook: difficult to comment on products not shipping, can’t talk intelligently.
• iPhone sold 21 million, highest satisfaction. Years ahead. Look at business through software platform lens. Benefits Apple and customers. Games to serious medical apps. Power of device and ecosystem is enormous, Apple just scratching surface.
• Talking about margins, education buying season.
• (Free iPod touches with Mac purchase for education again this year?)
• Protecting IP (Palm Pre?!) haven’t seen anything yet? Patent position or waiting for shipment?
• Cook: Think iPhone innovation leading industry by years, competition is great… as long as other companies invent their own stuff.
• That’s it, we’re done!

UPDATE ON RESULTS: Apple has published their results:

• The Company sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
• Quarterly iPhone units sold were 3.79 million representing 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Apple doesn’t break out iPod touch numbers, but last month during the iPhone OS 3.0 event, Apple did say 30 million iPhone OS units were sold, with 17 million being iPhone, leaving 13 million iPod touches on the market… and likely growing.

Original article after the break..

Apple will be reporting their Q2, 2009 financial results today at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT. While often tedious and filled with legally necessitated boilerplate responses, Apple typically discloses iPhone sales figures, App Store numbers, and other related metrics. TiPb likely won’t live-blog the call (which you can listen to via Apple.com if you really want to), but we will update this post any and all iPhone news, especially if we get some rumbling like last quarter’s veiled legal threats against the Palm Pre…

Remember, it’s all about the profits. Check back later this afternoon/tonight for the updates!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Updated: Apple Reports 3.79 Million More iPhone Sold in Q2, 11 Million iPods

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.

[via Jeffdc5 on Twitter]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Posts Quarterly Earnings, Once Again Needs to Thank iPhone!

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…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T Still Rolling in iPhone Dough: 1.9M iPhone’s Activated in Q4