AT&T increases its share of iPhone activations

AT&T said Thursday it activated 3.2 million iPhones during the third quarter, a record for the wireless carrier. That's out of 7.4 million iPhones sold by Apple during the quarter, also a record for Apple.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

That means AT&T handles about 43 percent of all iPhones, the rest going to international carriers, and of course a smattering of jailbroken devices on other U.S. wireless companies.

In the same quarter a year ago, Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones, and AT&T activated 2.4 million of them, or 35 percent of them. That's a rise of 8 percentage points for AT&T.

What's more interesting is that despite more international carriers selling the iPhone this year--there were to be 80 by the end of summer--AT&T's share of them is still rising.

Expect that number to change soon. Later this month China Unicom will start selling Apple's smartphone for the first time at 1,000 locations, with more sites to be added over the next few months, Apple COO Tim Cook said on the company's earnings call Monday.

[kevinsickles]

Didn't many Analysts and reporters (including CNET) claim at&t losses money on the Iphone? Really?

[Dani210]

wow guess what. this article means that apple sold less iphones internationally than last year. so that basically the international market is shrinking while the domestic one is growing.

[jonbruce]

Interesting analysis that AT&T network may be suffering configuration issues. Any thoughts as to whether this is the underlying cause?

http://blogs.broughturner.com/2009/10/is-att-wireless-data-congestion-selfinflicted.html