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Verizon iPhone sales fall short of expectations

Molly McHugh
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iPhone on VerizonBoy Genius Report claims that an Apple source revealed some first-week Verizon iPhone sales information – and it’s not impressive. According to the report, the numbers failed to meet both Verizon and Apple’s expectations. Below are the combined iPhone unit sales totals from five Apple stores during that initial week of the Verizon iPhone launch. The numbers include two “very, very prominent” (New York? San Francisco? Boston?) Apple stores as well, and compare AT&T sales to Verizon’s.

  • Thursday: Verizon – 909, AT&T – 539
  • Friday: Verizon – 916, AT&T – 680
  • Saturday: Verizon – 660, AT&T – 471
  • Sunday: Verizon – 796, AT&T – 701
  • Monday: Verizon – 711, AT&T – 618

Verizon’s early lead obviously diminished by Sunday, when it and AT&T were selling close to the same amount. The in-store launches for the Verizon iPhone were noticeably quiet, but the carrier attributed the lack of crowds to overwhelming pre-order sales. They were impressive, even record-breaking for Verizon, but apparently not enough to meet what Verizon and Apple had apparently anticipated. According to the report, those 550,000 online pre-orders couldn’t pull in the expected numbers.

BGR also had some information on who exactly did pick up a Verizon iPhone.

  • 30 percent were Android users
  • Approximately 25 percent were BlackBerry users
  • A measly 14 percent were AT&T iPhone users
  • The rest didn’t want to comment, or weren’t smartphone or mobile phone users prior to their Verizon iPhone purchase (which, is frankly, sort of insane)

Despite its less-than-prestigious customer relations reputation, many iPhone users appear to be staying with AT&T – at least for the time being. True Apple fanboys aren’t going to want to wait when the iPhone 5 comes out this summer, and the hype surrounding the upgrade isn’t doing much to make anyone want to grab an iPhone 4. Of course, AT&T is doing its darnedest to lure and keep customers with offers like free mobile minutes between all carriers, possibly returning an unlimited data plan, and thousands of free rollover minutes for iPhone users. There’s also that thing called “spending a couple hundred dollars to break your contract” that most customers are happy to avoid.

Comparing the Verizon iPhone’s first-week sales to AT&T’s, while fun, would be without merit. Those were the first ever sales of the iPhone, so it naturally was in higher demand.

Or maybe, just maybe, an Apple product launch was overhyped and actual consumer interest wasn’t quite what everyone played it up to be. The Verizon iPhone had reached White-iPhone-like levels (which may be a deflating release itself) of buildup, and that’s some difficult buzz to live up to. But hey, maybe that’s why Verizon’s handling the added traffic so well.

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