Sprint iPhone Sales Flat Year-over-year

Sprint's first fiscal quarter earnings report is out, and the cell service provider said it activated 1.5 million iPhones during the quarter. That number is down compared to last quarter's 2.2 million activations during the holiday season, but is inline with year-over-year numbers.

Sprint quarterly iPhone sales hit 1.5 million43 percent of those 1.5 million iPhone activations were for new subscribers, which is also in line with Sprint numbers from a year ago.

Compared to the company's fourth quarter in 2012, iPhone activations are down. The company reported 2.2 million iPhones for that quarter with 38 percent going to new customers.

Total smartphone sales for the first fiscal quarter hit 5 million units and 86 percent of the company's quarterly postpaid handest sales were smartphones.

In comparison, Verizon reported last week it sold 4 million iPhones during the quarter, which was also down compared to the previous quarter where 6.2 million iPhones were sold. Compared to the carrier's pre-holiday quarter sales, however, activations were up form 3.1 million.

Sprint also reported US$7.1 billion in revenue, up 9 percent year-over-year. Losses for the quarter totalled $643 million, down from the year ago quarter's $863 million. The carrier also lost 560,000 subscribers.