iPhone credited with spurring Verizon’s smartphone sales as Q2 earnings exceed predictions
Verizon Wireless has exceeded analysts’s predictions and posted impressive second quarter earnings of US$1.88 billion.
A key factor in the results was increased smartphone sales, which now account for 30 per cent of the US carrier’s device sales.
Denny Strigl, Verizon’s president and COO, even went as far as to give the build up of interest for the 3G iPhone’s launch earlier this month some of the credit for his company’s results.
Verizon, currently the number two phone service provider, is fighting the Apple handset’s exclusive carrier, AT&T, for the market leadership slot.
“As we saw with the initial introduction, the iPhone has actually stimulated smartphone sales,” he said.
Verizon Wireless’s revenue for the second quarter was US$24.12 billion, up from US$23.27 billion in the first quarter and a 3.7 per cent increase compared with second quarter 2007.
Shrugging of a sluggish economy, the company attributed strong growth in wireless services and demand for data services as the primary stimulators in the results.
Businesses or individual smartphone users don’t appear to be switching off services, pulling back on data services or putting off handset upgrades.
Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million subscribers in the second quarter bringing its total subscriber base to 68.7 million.
Last week AT&T reported adding more than a million subscribers.
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