AT&T's third quarter earnings were in line with estimates as the company activated 4.8 million smartphones almost evenly split between the iPhone and non-Apple devices run mostly by Android.
The company reported third quarter earnings of $3.6 billion, or 61 cents a share, on revenue of $31.5 billion, down slightly from a year ago.
AT&T said it activated 2.7 million iPhones in the third quarter with 2.1 million non-Apple devices such as Android, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry. Android sales doubled for the company. It's unclear whether that diversification will remain though. AT&T's iPhone activations were off from the prior two quarters due to the launch of the iPhone 4S. In the second quarter, AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones.
Indeed, the carrier already said it had a record number of iPhone activations since the launch of the iPhone 4S. separately, AT&T noted that it has activated 1 million iPhone 4S devices in five days. Also see: AT&T steps up Android push: Devices start to blend together
Overall, AT&T ended the quarter with 100.7 million subscribers. Postpaid net additions were 319,000. AT&T added 293,000 prepaid subscribers, more than 1 million connected devices and 473,000 accounts via resellers.
On a conference call with analysts, Ralph de la Vega, AT&T's President and CEO for Mobility and Consumer Markets, said:
We're off to a very fast start with the iPhone 4S. In fact, it has been our most successful launch in history, activating more than 1 million iPhone 4S' through Tuesday.
Other key points:
Churn was 1.28 percent, down from 1.32 percent a year ago. Postpaid churn was 1.15 percent.
By the numbers: