While AT&T isn’t saying goodbye to the iPhone entirely next month, they are saying farewell to their U.S. exclusivity for the handset -- but not before activating another 4.1 million of the handsets in the fourth quarter of 2010.
AppleInsider is reporting that AT&T activated 4.1 million iPhones during the last quarter of 2010, which also happens to be the carrier’s final quarter as the exclusive U.S. provider of Apple’s iconic device. Overall, however, the company’s subscriber growth missed analyst expectations in advance of Verizon Wireless starting subscriber presales of the iPhone 4 next Thursday.
“For the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, AT&T reported a profit of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents per share, well short of its $2.7 billion, or 46 cents per share profit in the same quarter last year,” AppleInsider reports. “And although it activated over 4 million iPhones, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier said that it netted just 400,000 new contract customers during the quarter.”
Wall Street was hoping for more like 500,000 new customers during the quarter, but the news for AT&T gets even worse -- rival Verizon Wireless activated more than twice the number of subscribers during the same period for a total of 872,000 new subscribers. After announcing their quarterly results on Thursday morning, AT&T’s shares slid more than three percent in early morning trading.
The news wasn’t all grim for AT&T, however -- the carrier added 442,000 wireless 3G customers during the quarter, primarily customers using Apple’s iPad or other non-voice hardware.
Wireless data revenue also increased 27.4 percent from a year ago, up $1.1 billion for a total of $4.9 billion. That revenue includes text messaging, internet access, apps and related services, including 173.1 billion text messages served, an increase of nearly 29 percent.
Wall Street will no doubt be bracing for the worst when AT&T announces their first-quarter 2011 financial results in three months, which will be the first quarter that the carrier will be sharing the iPhone 4 with their rival, Verizon.
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