T-Mobile's first fiscal quarter results are out and show the company's iPhone 5 sales hit 500,000 during the one month Apple's smartphone was available. The carrier began officially offering the iPhone on April 12, making it the last of the big cell service providers to get in on Apple's smartphone game.
This marked the seventh consecutive quarter where T-Mobile saw an increase in subscribers, although revenue dropped year-over-year from US$5.03 billion down to $4.68 billion. This was also the first post MetroPCS merger quarter for T-Mobile.
T-Mobile saw strong sales the first day it began selling the iPhone in its stores. Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said at the time, "Today has been gangbusters for T-Mobile," adding that sales were beating company expectations.
One draw T-Mobile has for new customers is its Uncarrier plan where customers can finance the cost of their smartphone instead of paying subsidized pricing, and aren't bound to a two-year contract. Financing lists a $20 line item on subscriber's bills, which drops off once the phone is paid off. Traditional subsidized contracts roll that cost into user's bills, but don't remove it once the phone's cost has been recovered.
T-Mobile said its overall subscriber base rose by 579,000, and that prepaid subscribers increased by 202,000. Postpaid subscibers, however, dropped by 199,000.
In comparison, AT&T gained 296,000 subscribers during the quarter, and Verizon gained 677,000. iPhone activations, however, were a different story with AT&T hitting 4.8 million, Verizon coming in at 4 million, and Sprint following behind with 1.5 million units.
The carrier's numbers may not be on par with AT&T and Verizon, but they are on the rise, and 500,000 new iPhone users sounds like a nice boost for T-Mobile.