Sprint Wireless Sold 2.2 Million iPhones During Q4

Sprint Wireless sold 2.2 million iPhone’s in Q4 2012. It is that large number of devices that Sprint partly blames for its $1.3 billion net loss. Sprint sells each iPhone at a huge loss in order to attract new customers and to retain current customers. The wireless firm then hopes to make its money back through talk, text, data, and other add-on phone options over a two-year contract period.

The wireless firm sold 1.5 million iPhone’s in each quarter leading up to Q3. Sprint sold a total of 4 million LTE-based smartphones in Q4 2012.

Thirty-eight percent of all iPhone’s sold in Q4 were delivered to new customers.

Throughout 2012, Sprint managed to move 20 million smartphones including 6.6 million iPhone’s. Sprint attracted a 40 percent new user base throughout 2012 thanks to iPhone sales.

While smartphones are the predominant type of device sale, the company did manage to move 11 percent of its devices by way of “feature” phones.

Sprint signed a contract with Apple in 2011 in which it promised to purchase $15.5 billion in iPhone devices over the next four years. Sprint at the time of the deal predicted a deficit through the 2012 fiscal year.

With millions of iPhone customers now paying monthly data and talk fees, Sprint Wireless is hoping to turn a profit from its massive sales.

Sprint Wireless is also hoping that its long-term evolution (LTE) network, now launched in 58 cities, will attract more customers. Sprint is currently working to expand its LTE network to 170 new areas over the next several months. Sprint has also started construction of LTE networks in 450 new locations.