U.S. mobile carrier AT&T sold a record number of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012 thanks to “best-ever” sales of the iPhone and Android-based devices, according to a press release issued early Tuesday. The carrier reported sales of “more than 10 million” smartphones during the quarter, up from the previous record of 9.4 million set in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s CEO, praised the company’s results:
We had another incredible quarter of smartphone sales as the mobile Internet continues to drive strong growth in wireless. These are the industry’s most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers. During the quarter, we averaged more than 110,000 smartphone sales a day as customers flocked to our leading portfolio of the latest Android, Apple and Windows devices. Combine that with the nation’s largest 4G network and lightning-fast LTE network that now reaches more than 170 million people and you’ll understand why customers continue to choose AT&T in record numbers.
While AT&T has not yet explained the breakdown of smartphone sales by platform, the company did reveal last quarter that it sold 4.7 iPhones out of 6.1 million smartphones overall in Q3 2012. AT&T also reported in September that the iPhone 5 was the “fastest-selling iPhone” in the company’s history, with more than 2 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours.
Specific numbers for the quarter should come during the company’s fourth quarter results call on Thursday, January 24.