Verizon's Strong iPhone Sales this Quarter a Good Sign for Apple
Many Apple investors are a little jittery at the moment with concerns about the success of Apple's new iPhone models. Investors are hoping to hear a little good news away from those reports about poor iPhone 5C sales. With Apple only reporting its quarterly earnings on Oct. 28th, a little good news could go a long way in calming any fears investors may have. That good news arrived late Thursday when Verizon reported their iPhone sales numbers. The news was positive – very positive. Whether Apple's success with Verizon is any indication of how things will translate for the current quarter is unknown at this time, but the first signs are positive.
Fortunately for worried Apple investors, Verizon provided some good news in its quarterly earnings report on Thursday. Of the 7.6 million smartphones activated by Verizon in the third quarter, 51% were iPhones.
According to a new report by Daily Finance today, "this implies that Verizon sold approximately 3.9 million iPhones in the quarter. That's a very strong number, and it suggests Apple will post a massive year-over-year increase in iPhone shipments for the three-month period that ended in September.
Since Verizon's share of worldwide iPhone activations has been fairly stable recently, it is possible to use Verizon's sales numbers to get a rough estimate of how many iPhones Apple sold last quarter. As noted above, in the first two quarters of 2013, Verizon activated 11% of all iPhones sold worldwide. In last year's quarter that closed in September, Verizon had a 12% share.
It's important to remember that there are a lot of moving parts involved in Apple's quarterly iPhone sales tally. For instance, it's possible that Verizon had a better initial supply of the new iPhones this year compared to last year. Therefore, investors shouldn't assume that a 25% increase at Verizon translates directly to a 25% increase in worldwide iPhone sales.
Nevertheless, Verizon's strong iPhone activation numbers -- combined with Apple's big opening weekend sales tally -- should make investors comfortable that Apple sold plenty of iPhones last quarter. Since the iPhone is responsible for the majority of Apple's revenue and profit, this bodes well for the company's quarterly earnings. There's no need to worry about Apple: It's doing just fine!"
With the announcement of U.S. Cellular coming on board on November eighth and Apple gaining the two largest Asian carriers (NTT Docomo in Japan and China Mobile that should come onboard before the year closes), sales of Apple's iPhone next quarter should represent their strongest sales to date.
If you're an AAPL investor, be sure to tune into Apple's Q4 FY13 financial conference call set for October 28, 2013, 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET.
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AAPL will be at new highs by Jan 2015 report!
New products plus any strong forever going revenue stream like Apple payment services comes out soon, then this will soon be Trillion $ Company! Great Acquisition is an additional bonus!
Bring in iSearch as well lol
Posted by: Jason | October 19, 2013 at 07:34 PM