AT&T said today that it has activated one million iPhone 4S devices as of Tuesday, making the launch of the next-generation Apple smartphone the carrier's most successful iPhone launch in AT&T history.
"It's no surprise that customers are clamoring for iPhone 4S and they want it to run on a network that lets them download twice as fast as competitors'," Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets, said in a statement.
Apple said earlier this week that its iPhone 4S sales topped 4 million altogether, a big jump from the 1.7 million iPhone 4's that were sold in the first three days after its June 2010 launch.
AT&T's announcement was part of its quarterly earnings. Overall, the carrier activated 2.7 million iPhones during the quarter, a drop from last quarter's 3.6 million. Earlier this week, however, Apple acknowledged that rumors about the release of a new iPhone hurt sales over the summer, as people held on to older devices in anticipation of a new smartphone.
AT&T now has two new competitors in the iPhone space: Sprint and regional carrier C Spire. Sprint said last week that it had its "best ever day of sales" when it started selling the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Verizon, which has had the iPhone since February, has not yet released any stats, but will hold its earnings call on October 21.
In discussing the iPhone competition, de la Vega said during a conference call that "our results speak for themselves." New customers are choosing AT&T and existing customers are staying, he said. With the iPhone 4S, he predicted "unbelievable" fourth quarter sales and possibly AT&T's best-ever smartphone quarter ever.
New AT&T customers are also very interested in the iPhone 3GS, which is now free with a two-year contract, de la Vega said. AT&T is the only carrier with the 3GS at this point.
AT&T has apparently made good on its pledge to get aggressive on Android. Sales of Android devices more than doubled since last year, AT&T said. Almost half of all smartphone sales, meanwhile, were devices other than the iPhone. Approximately 52.6 percent of AT&T postpaid customers have smartphones, up from 39.1 percent last year.
In terms of "branded computing devices," which include tablets, aircards, MiFi devices, tethering plans, and the like, AT&T said it added 505,000 of those devices during the quarter for a total of 4.5 million, an 80 percent increase from last year. Most of those subscribers—or 290,000—were tablets, AT&T said.
AT&T's subscriber numbers, meanwhile, topped the 100 million mark as the carrier added 2 million wireless customers for a total of 100.7 million, though only 319,000 were in the postpaid market.
On the financial front, AT&T reported revenues of $31.5 billion, down 0.3 percent from last year. Earnings came in at $3.6 billion.
AT&T is currently trying to acquire T-Mobile, but has hit a few roadblocks, most notably a Department of Justice lawsuit that is looking to block the deal. During today's call, John Stephens, AT&T's chief financial officer, said "the FCC review is continuing and on the DOJ front, we're hopeful that we can reach a solution. We have a trial date in less than four months. The benefits of the combination are both significant and unchanged and our expectation continues to be that we will reach a successful conclusion."
For more, see PCMag's full review of the iPhone 4S and the slideshow below.