Verizon: 2m iPhone 4 sales, iPhone 4S demand still huge

Verizon has announced its Q3 2011 financial results, confirming that around two million iPhone 4 handsets were activated during the three month period, and revealing that first-day iPhone 4S sales were so strong that the carrier still lacks stock. Of the 5.6m smartphones Verizon sold in Q3, over half ran Android; that contrasts with AT&T's figures from earlier in the week, where the iPhone continued to monopolize smartphone sales.

Verizon failed to reveal exactly how many iPhone 4S sales it had made, again unlike AT&T which announced over 1m activations so far. Apple itself announced sales of 4m iPhone 4S handsets in the opening weekend alone, though that is across the US, UK and other launch territories.

Total new connections on Verizon this past quarter were 1.3m, of which 882,000 were retail postpaid customers. That keeps the carrier ahead of AT&T on total connections, which is now at 107.7m, though smartphones account for a smaller percentage of those, at 39-percent. In contrast, AT&T says more than half of its postpaid subscribers have smart devices.

Earlier this week, Verizon and Motorola announced the DROID RAZR, which will go on sale next month. The Android smartphone will use Verizon's 4G LTE network.