AT&T sold 10m smartphones in Q4, beats 2011 record

AT&T said today that it sold more than 10 million smartphones during the fourth quarter, the period towards the end of the year during the lucrative Christmas and holiday months, thanks mostly due to the high demand of Android devices and iPhones.

The previous record was 9.4 million smartphones during the same quarter in 2011, a year ago.

AT&T Mobility president Ralph de la Vega said in prepared remarks: "We had another incredible quarter of smartphone sales as the mobile Internet continues to drive strong growth in wireless." He added that the cellular giant, with more than 105 million customers in the U.S., sold on average 110,000 smartphones a day during the busy buying period.

While Android devices and iPhones were undoubtedly the power behind the company's portfolio, the statement also noted that Windows Phone devices were also popular. The figures were not broken down by brand or platform, however.

The company reported third quarter earnings of $3.6 billion, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of $31.5 billion. Wall Street was hoping for earnings of 60 cents a share. During the third quarter, AT&T sold 6.1 million smartphones, an increase by 1.3 million on the same period a year ago, while activating 4.7 million iPhones.

AT&T will report its full fourth quarter and 2012 fiscal year financials after the markets close on January 24.