AT&T reports record smartphone sales in Q4 2012

AT&T has announced some pretty impressive numbers about their fourth quarter sales in 2012. The company reports that they have sold over 10 million smartphones during Q4 2012 alone. The previous record was 9.4 million smartphones sold in the same quarter in 2011, so this year's numbers may not be a huge increase, but progress is certainly progress.

Overall, the latest results suggest AT&T smartphone sales for all of 2012 will be about 26.7 million units, slightly ahead of its previous forecast of 26 million. earlier last year. The carrier is trying to bounce back from the third quarter, when it added only 151,000 contract subscribers, compared to 1.5 million with Verizon.

AT&T averaged daily sales of more than 110,000 smartphones, which includes iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8 devices. AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said that the carrier's subscribers "are the industry's most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers."

Verizon had good things to say about its fourth quarter as well. CEO Lowell McAdam yesterday called their Q4 2012 "historic" and mentioned that it was their best quarter ever as they added 2.1 million net subscribers. AT&T plans to report its full fourth-quarter results on January 24, and Verizon on the 22nd.