Even though AT&T may not have thought it possible, Verizon is capturing a big chunk of their share of the iPhone market from the previously exclusive iPhone carrier, and they may want to be a bit worried about what Verizon is going to do to their future sales.
After about five weeks of being released, Verizon’s version of the iPhone has nearly 10 percent of the U.S. iPhone market that previously belonged to AT&T. This is after Verizon announced that the sales for the iPhone were record breaking and that they possibly sold nearly a million phones.
This information was gathered from Chitka Insights, an analysis firm geared upon the Chitka advertising network, which follows how Chitka ads show up on various iPhones, and then determines what carrier the user has, and relates that number to the bigger iPhone market. This method of counting things differs from some of the other company’s methods, with the range of Verizon’s acquisition of customers showing a range of between 9.4 and 12 percent.
Chika put the Verizon iPhone with a market share of only three percent in the first month, and then tripled that only 30 days later. This is especially interesting knowing that he Verizon version of the iPhone isn’t even a new one, as it is a CDMA phone that is outdated compare to models that AT&T sells.
Still, there are a lot of good reasons for users to not switch from AT&T to Verizon, with one big one being the new iPhone 5, which is expected out soon. AT&T also has a faster data network than Verizon, making their iPhone run faster, and the CDMA version by Verizon has a more limited data capability as well and users can’t surf the net and talk on the phone like AT&T users can.
Even so, having 10 percent of the market is nothing to be unhappy about, and AT&T should probably at least be concerned. The upcoming iPhone 5 is likely to get a lot of new iPhone users to sign up, which would be the best time for AT&T users to leave that carrier and switch over to the newer phone.
And then there is the fact that Verizon is continuing to expand their 4G LTE network and is now in 176 places. Perhaps this is why AT&T seems somewhat worried and has recently been offering a 1,000 rollover minute deal to its customers who text “YES” to the number 11113020 before March 31.
All in all, AT&T needs to keep their eye on Verizon and time will tell which company comes out on top.
