ATT Misses Customer Addition Goal, Verizon Chuckles In A Corner

By Rob Boggan

All the major carriers released their earning figures late last week and for the most part everyone did a pretty decent job. One of the biggest takeaways from these figures happen to appear between the top two carriers in the US. In the 3rd quarter of this year,  AT&T posted a net subscriber gain of 151,000 a far cry from the original projection of 358,000. What’s more interesting behind these figures is the fact that in the same time frame Verizon managed to capture 1.5 million net subscribers. Now according to AT&T, the shortage came at the hands of consumers unwillingness to buy due to the impending launch of the iPhone 5. Sounds logical, but the biggest issue I take with that statement is how does a rival company turn around and smash your numbers ten times over with the same consumers waiting for the same phone?

Even more telling than that, this supremely exposes AT&T’s continued dependence on Apple and Apple products to maintain profitability and growth. Which is a sad scenario given that I firmly believe that AT&T does have the largest selection of smartphones.

What’s your take?

{via Yahoo!}