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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Sprint today was the last of the three major iPhone carriers in the United States to release earnings for the first calendar quarter of 2012, announcing that it sold 1.5 million iPhones during the quarter. The number is down slightly from the 1.8 million units sold in the previous quarter, the debut quarter for the iPhone on Sprint.

sprint_logo.jpg



Sprint remains the smallest of the three major U.S. iPhone carriers in terms of units sold, as Verizon activated 3.2 million iPhones during the quarter while AT&T continued to lead the pack with 4.3 million units. Sprint did, however, experience the smallest percentage decline from the previous quarter among the three carriers. The carrier also noted that 44% of its quarterly iPhone sales went to customers new to Sprint, up from 40% in the previous quarter.

Article Link: Sprint Sells 1.5 Million iPhones in 1Q 2012
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,520
And poor T-Mobile is just about the only US carrier left without the iPhone.
 

eastercat

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,323
7
PDX
Are the figures of 1.8 and 1.5 million what Sprint was hoping to sell? Any context with regards to how the sales compare to the other phones?
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,520
Are the figures of 1.8 and 1.5 million what Sprint was hoping to sell? Any context with regards to how the sales compare to the other phones?


Their press release doesn't mention phone sales figures other than the iPhone.
 
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PracticalMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,857
5,242
Houston, TX
On the face of it the numbers look good, slightly less then half of what Verizon sold, and "that 44% of its quarterly iPhone sales went to customers new to Sprint"
 

SuperSnake2012

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2005
824
19
NY
I have a Sprint iPhone and I'm satisfied with my service. However, my 3G is usually unusable in my hometown (Bronx, NY) but is really fast in every other city I've visited :mad:
 

blue22

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2010
505
18
Sprint has done alright by me thus far...

For the most part I've been satisfied with Sprint's iPhone service. For sure their network is not as fast as AT&T and Verizon's, but at least I don't have to worry about being nickle & dimmed by them specifically for data overages. Plus it's nice that their nights & weekends starts at 7pm instead of 9pm with the rest of them.


And poor T-Mobile is just about the only US carrier left without the iPhone.

Yeah, they need to get their act together quickly if they wanna survive in the U.S. beyond 2013, and I hope they do eventually get the iPhone because that'll be good for customers all around with more competitive iPhone service plans to choose from.
 

AppleDroid

macrumors 6502a
Apr 10, 2011
631
84
Illinois
Sounds good. Now we have to see if Sprint can roll out a nationwide LTE network and still earn back that $863 Million net loss.

This is my wish as well but I know it won't happen in my area this year. (OR next). In the last year my 3G data speeds on Sprint have plummeted. Even in a 5-bar area I max out around 150kbps down and sometimes can't even get a data connection.
 

WalkingSnake

macrumors member
Jul 2, 2009
66
0
Unlimited isn't enough of a perk if your network is the slowest. Maybe once they get LTE.

I'm a Sprint customer and pretty happy. I tend to get signal where my friend on Verizon can't, and I don't have to worry about going over my data limit when I'm streaming things like MLB.TV over 3G, which comes in perfectly clear.
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,485
1,571
East Coast
Are the figures of 1.8 and 1.5 million what Sprint was hoping to sell?

Sprint is on the hook for $15billion (or so) iPhones in the next 4 years. If you use an average price of $625/iphone, then they'd have to sell 24 million iPhones to meet their commitment with Apple. That sounds like a lot, but it's only 6 million per year. They've gotten 3.3 million so far in 1/2 year, so they're on their way to around 5.5 to 6 million this year. If you assume year-over-year growth of a modest 10% growth, I think they can get to 25.5 million over the 4 year period ... provided they don't go out of business first.
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
Odd that Sprint(iPhones sold) is on the IOS Blog page while both AT&T and Verizon are and the Front Page.:confused:
It used to be better before MacRumors changed, important news on page 1 and the rest on page 2
 
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Norkusa

macrumors member
Nov 25, 2010
62
1
Grand Rapids, MI
I wonder how many of these phones have been returned? I see so many posts in the Sprint forums where someone buys a new iPhone, tries it out for a few days, and returns it because the 3G service is so awful.
 

davfer

macrumors newbie
Nov 13, 2011
4
0
I cannot even pass the 500MB used monthly with this poor internet service... I'm trying to leave sprint without paying the ETF with their false Advertising... (3G averages of 600kbps-1.4Mbps)..

I'm only getting 100kbps if i have good luck.
 

eastercat

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,323
7
PDX
Since this was only a press release, I decided to look at news.google and the articles that covered the sprint story with more depth; it mentioned that the iphone sales helped increase its profit--which I take to be good for both companies. Apple gets some credit for helping to raise sprint's fortunes and sprint gets to say they made a good investment in the iphone.
Besides sprint's 15 billion dollar commitment, they also have another big multi-billion dollar expense that's network related. Still, ftaok's comment about sprint going bankrupt may prove to be apocryphal.
Their press release doesn't mention phone sales figures other than the iPhone.

Sprint is on the hook for $15billion (or so) iPhones in the next 4 years. If you use an average price of $625/iphone, then they'd have to sell 24 million iPhones to meet their commitment with Apple. That sounds like a lot, but it's only 6 million per year. They've gotten 3.3 million so far in 1/2 year, so they're on their way to around 5.5 to 6 million this year. If you assume year-over-year growth of a modest 10% growth, I think they can get to 25.5 million over the 4 year period ... provided they don't go out of business first.
 
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