AT&T Pre-Announces 'Best-Ever' iPhone Sales in 4Q 2012

[IJ Reilly]

i'm not disagreeing with that. my point is it seems rather silly to sit around arguing about semantics like that.

You realize I hope that semantics is about the meaning of words. Whether you knew that or not, understand that these press releases are written by people who do know about the meaning of words. The theory that they meant something other than what they said is doubtful at best. Knowing this I would wager that the ambiguous wording was entirely deliberate. Read whatever you like into it, but don't kid yourself into believing that you've figured out what they really meant to say.

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I (and I don't think anyone is arguing) that the iPhone is going to make up the majority of sales. That's not the issue. Do I need to instruct you to read the headline of the article. That's what is what I (personally) object to - because there's no evidence whatsoever that it's true based on the information MR is citing.

Funny too, because one of the staples of these boards is claiming that stock analysts are constantly manipulating news about Apple.

 

[AidenShaw]

My prediction? Apple is setting a record at ATT, I'll make a crapload of money, and some of the people here will talk about how Apple's qtr was a disappointment!

Did you buy AAPL at $705, and you're selling it today at $520?

 

[iMikeT]

Or at least offer a promo to existing customers like $30 for 5GB with tethering instead of $30 for 3GB without tethering. I know its not a huge difference, but its at least something that is reasonable to AT&T

How about just matching or beating the competition's offerings and COMPETING for customers instead of alienating and expecting their customers to simply take their prices and services as is?

Sorry but do they CAP your data? or do they throttle you over a certain amount so that you get what you are paying for with your 2007 unlimited data plan. You are paying for 3G speeds, not LTE. I suggest AT&T let you have 3G unlimited, at the 1mb or less you would have gotten in 2007.

Throttling and capping might as well be considered the same thing because once a certain level of data used is met, it's pretty much unusable.

Actually, I am paying for unlimited LTE data as AT&T converted Unlimited 3G to Unlimited LTE. That's what it says on my bill in the year 2013.

I wouldn't mind if AT&T throttled back down to 3G speeds once I hit a certain cap because 3G is usable at least. I've been throttled before and the speeds were slower than EDGE.

I get 35-40mb/s regularly on AT&T LTE network in Tampa. Should I be allowed unlimited data on the cellular network at that speed. If they did, it would crush the network.

Yes, you should be allowed to have unlimited data at full speed because that is exactly what you are paying for.

Crushing the network would imply that EVERYONE is using the network AT THE SAME TIME. But in reality, not everyone is doing that. I'm sure that most people are connected to wi-fi when they are at home.

But for those of us who are not always close to a wi-fi network, like me, I would like to be able to know that I have a reliable network that I am connected to and use all I want when I need it.

I am flipping sick of clueless people who moan and complain when they can't get stuff for free.

Is this the face that you're making from being so flipping sick?

No one is getting LTE for free because those using AT&T's network is paying for it monthly.

AT&T is provides an UNLIMITED data plan and it would be great to know that customers are getting WHAT THEY PAID FOR. If customers do not get what they pay for, in this case, UNLIMITED and UNTHROTTLED data, customers therefore have EVERY right to complain. Does that make sense to you?

AT&T is clearly investing in faster LTE networks which is not free...

AT&T has had their towers up for a very long time and I imagine that it doesn't cost them much more to upgrade them over to LTE.

How about AT&T's CEO/executive team not making some crazy nine figure salary/bonuses and leaving that money in the company to pay for the upgrade? How much money does any one person really need? AT&T makes money from its customers hand over fist and the CEO stated that he regrets giving customers unlimited data because they can't charge more since real-world usage was well over 5GB per month.

 

[Technarchy]

9.4 million smartphones with 7.6 million of them being iPhones?

gee, I guess the proof's in the pudding. iPhones still outsell Android garbage by far. (at least with AT&T)

Funny how we keep hearing about all these great sales numbers from Android dreck, but the carriers never have the numbers to support phone maker lies.

 

[imacintosh.0]

Did you buy AAPL at $705, and you're selling it today at $520?

Who says anything about selling? I find it hilarious that ppl were shorting at 700. Stock market noobs if I've ever seen em. My money will be made when appl skyrockets in 2013

Btw, just looked at your post history, and you said Apple would need to do a fire sale...lol oh boy....

 

[imacintosh.0]

You realize I hope that semantics is about the meaning of words. Whether you knew that or not, understand that these press releases are written by people who do know about the meaning of words. The theory that they meant something other than what they said is doubtful at best. Knowing this I would wager that the ambiguous wording was entirely deliberate. Read whatever you like into it, but don't kid yourself into believing that you've figured out what they really meant to say.

So let's wager! You seem strong in your convictions, shall we have a friendly bet that that's exactly what's going to happen? I'll PayPal you when you win.

You do agree it's a virtual certainty that Apple will get extremely close to the record if not break it right?

 

[Rogifan]

Verizon has numbers out too now:

http://www.zdnet.com/verizon-9-8-million-activations-during-q4-7000009582/
...Verizon said in an 8-K regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has seen 9.8 million smartphone activations during the fourth quarter, with a "higher mix of Apple smartphones."

 

[samcraig]

Funny how we keep hearing about all these great sales numbers from Android dreck, but the carriers never have the numbers to support phone maker lies.

Funny how this isn't about WORLD sales - but just USA.

So let's wager! You seem strong in your convictions, shall we have a friendly bet that that's exactly what's going to happen? I'll PayPal you when you win.

You do agree it's a virtual certainty that Apple will get extremely close to the record if not break it right?

I can't believe I am typing this again.

Read the headline of this "article"
AT&T Pre-Announced 'Best-Ever' iPhone Sales in 4Q 2012

Read the press release.

AT&T did no such thing. Regardless of whether it's going to be true or not. That's not what the press release states. It's not semantics. It's factually incorrect.

An accurate headline would be "AT&T's Has Best Ever Smart Phone Sales in 4Q 2012" or "Will 4Q be AT&T's Best Ever iPhone Sales" or "AT&T Likely to have Best-Ever iPhone Sales in 4Q based on Recent Pre-Announcement"

Or something like that.

I am not arguing what the numbers are. I don't care. What I am arguing is that the headline is - for lack of better word - digenuous. It's a poor headline. It's MR opinion - not fact.

 

[IJ Reilly]

So let's wager! You seem strong in your convictions, shall we have a friendly bet that that's exactly what's going to happen? I'll PayPal you when you win.

You do agree it's a virtual certainty that Apple will get extremely close to the record if not break it right?

I'm not a betting man, I'm an investing man. So thanks but no thanks, and particularly because I'm not making predictions, but talking about what AT&T actually said in their press release. Those are my only stated convictions, but you are welcome to attempt to read between the lines, if that makes you happy. Not that it will make you right.

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AT&T did no such thing. Regardless of whether it's going to be true or not. That's not what the press release states. It's not semantics. It's factually incorrect.

You are right, but I'd argue that "semantics" is precisely the issue here. You and I are reading the words of the press release as if they mean exactly what they say. Others are happy to infer something else from those words, based mainly (it seems) on what they hope to be true, not on any information actually supplied by the words.

 

[imacintosh.0]

Funny how this isn't about WORLD sales - but just USA.



I can't believe I am typing this again.

Read the headline of this "article"
AT&T Pre-Announced 'Best-Ever' iPhone Sales in 4Q 2012

Read the press release.

AT&T did no such thing. Regardless of whether it's going to be true or not. That's not what the press release states. It's not semantics. It's factually incorrect.

An accurate headline would be "AT&T's Has Best Ever Smart Phone Sales in 4Q 2012" or "Will 4Q be AT&T's Best Ever iPhone Sales" or "AT&T Likely to have Best-Ever iPhone Sales in 4Q based on Recent Pre-Announcement"

Or something like that.

I am not arguing what the numbers are. I don't care. What I am arguing is that the headline is - for lack of better word - digenuous. It's a poor headline. It's MR opinion - not fact.

The press release is ambiguous at best. You can't draw either conclusion from it, so you're doing the same thing you're asking others not too. You're concluding that it doesn't say best iPhone sales ever when it very well could be.

I'm pretty certain MRs interpretation is the right one.

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I'm not a betting man, I'm an investing man. So thanks but no thanks, and particularly because I'm not making predictions, but talking about what AT&T actually said in their press release. Those are my only stated convictions, but you are welcome to attempt to read between the lines, if that makes you happy. Not that it will make you right.

See above. The press release is not Crystall clear so it's funny that you tell me not to "kid myself" that I got it figured all out when you're doing the same thing!

You took it to mean combined sales of android and iPhone, I took it to mean highest ever for android, and highest ever for Apple. Why are you so sure that your interpretation is the correct one?

 

[samcraig]

The press release is ambiguous at best. You can't draw either conclusion from it, so you're doing the same thing you're asking others not too. You're concluding that it doesn't say best iPhone sales ever when it very well could be.

I'm pretty certain MRs interpretation is the right one.

You're still missing the point. MR isn't stating their opinion. The headline states a fact. A fact that has nothing to support it but interpretation. AT&T did not PRE-ANNOUNCE that statement.

I am not going to respond to you anymore because you simply don't get it. You keep wanting to make this about opinion. It's not. ATT never made the statement MR is claiming they did. Period.

 

[ftaok]

OK, let's all agree that the headline is misleading. With that said, we can infer that AT&T will report record iPhone sales for the just ended quarter.

I use two pieces of info to infer this. The first piece is obviously at&t's statement that they sold/activated over 10 million smartphones. The second piece is the report from Kantar that has Apple's US market share (12week rolling period Aug-nov) at an all time high of over 53% or so.

These pieces of information combined with apple historically accounting for 80% of ATTs smartphone sales ... viola, record iPhone sales at AT&T of 8.2 million or so. Previous record was 7.6 million.

 

[imacintosh.0]

You're still missing the point. MR isn't stating their opinion. The headline states a fact. A fact that has nothing to support it but interpretation. AT&T did not PRE-ANNOUNCE that statement.

I am not going to respond to you anymore because you simply don't get it. You keep wanting to make this about opinion. It's not. ATT never made the statement MR is claiming they did. Period.

Ok. I think it's obvious, unless you're here to just argue non-stop, that the headline is an inference based on the press release.

OK, let's all agree that the headline is misleading. With that said, we can infer that AT&T will report record iPhone sales for the just ended quarter.

I use two pieces of info to infer this. The first piece is obviously at&t's statement that they sold/activated over 10 million smartphones. The second piece is the report from Kantar that has Apple's US market share (12week rolling period Aug-nov) at an all time high of over 53% or so.

These pieces of information combined with apple historically accounting for 80% of ATTs smartphone sales ... viola, record iPhone sales at AT&T of 8.2 million or so. Previous record was 7.6 million.

My point exactly. Yes MR made an inference, but it's not like their inference was way out of line. In fact it's FAR more likely that MRs interpretation is correct than not. So, sure we can sit around arguing about headlines and press releases, or we can make educated guesses and interpretations. I prefer the latter because sitting around nitpicking doesn't entertain me.

 

[IJ Reilly]

See above. The press release is not Crystall clear so it's funny that you tell me not to "kid myself" that I got it figured all out when you're doing the same thing!

You have a special talent for reading things the way you want to see them instead of how they are -- not just of the article in question, but in the responses to same.

I'm with samcraig. Done.

 

[imacintosh.0]

Ok back on topic!

 

[unplugme71]

I'd like to know why AT&T wants an extra $15.mo for unlimited LTE enterprise data that only lets me use my own VPN connection? WTF AT&T?