iPhone Made Up 66% of AT&T’s December Smartphone Sales

The iPhone has without a doubt been one of the (if not the) year’s most popular handsets. The iPhone 4 led smartphone sales at Verizon for the better part of 2011, and both the 3GS and 4 have done the same at AT&T. But is the device still on top?

According to a recent report from The Mac Observer, it is. At least with AT&T anyway. The site claims that it has spoken to a source within the company that says that Apple’s smartphone dominated its handset sales during the month of December…

From The Mac Observer:

“According to the numbers we were shown—numbers not shared through official AT&T channels—AT&T sold some 981,000 iPhones through its corporate stores in the first 27 days of December, while 126,000 Android devices were sold during the same period. Even basic flip and slider phones did better than Android, with 128,000 units sold.”

There are a couple of things worth noting here. First, these numbers are only from AT&T’s corporate retail stores. They don’t include sales made online, over the phone, or through authorized retailers (including Apple). And secondly, there isn’t a way to confirm these numbers. Carriers usually don’t calculate total phone sales until the end of a quarter (if then).

Also keep in mind that since 2007, AT&T has essentially been “the iPhone carrier.” Other than a few other notable handsets, the company doesn’t have the eclectic smartphone lineup of Verizon. So the iPhone’s staggering popularity isn’t all that surprising.

The most interesting detail here is the fact that AT&T moved nearly a million units through its corporate stores. Just think, if its online and authorized dealer channels also sold a million each, that’d be over three million iPhones sold in less than a month by a single carrier.

[AppleInsider]