Verizon sold just 651,000 iPhone 5s last month

Verizon, one of the largest wireless cellphone providers in the country only sold 3.1 million iPhones last quarter, only 651,000 of which were the new iPhone 5. This is a surprising statistic considering the popularity of the iPhone 5. I believe that people believe that since the iPhones are so similar and just have minor changes, than why not buy the cheaper product. It all makes sense in the end; one example would also be the iPad’s. The first iPad was very expensive when it came out, and once the newer and improved products coming out resulted in the price to decrease. The nations largest wireless carrier blamed Apple’s iPhone 5 supply constraints, not weak demand, for surprisingly low number of iPhone 5’s sold in their first week on store shelves.  Wall Street analysts were still expecting an iPhone 5 sales number almost twice as high as the one Verizon reported. As a result of those numbers, Verizon Wireless posted a record profit margin of 50%. “Thanks to its industry-high subsidy of about $400 per iPhone, Apple's smartphone tends to decimate carriers' profit margins, particularly when new iPhones launch. The iPhone can be quite lucrative for carriers in the long run, but the huge rush of subscribers upgrading to the new device tends to have a nasty immediate impact on their bottom lines.”

The fact that Verizon had that little amount of sales is a bit of a surprise as a result of the release of a major product such as the iPhone 5 is amazing to see. With the holiday season coming up, the sales for the iPhone 5 will increase dramatically and help Verizon sell more iPhones. This is a product that will continue to have a large sum of sales within the next year. “Despite the worse-than-expected iPhone 5 numbers, Verizon still managed to activate 6.5 million smartphones over the past three months -- more than any quarter in its history except for the fourth quarter of 2011, when the iPhone 4S first went on sale. Verizon's 1.5 million net new customers under contract was its highest number of customer additions in four years.” So all in all Verizon is on track to start selling more and more iPhones, within the current year. 

 http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/18/technology/mobile/verizon-iphone/index.html