Verizon iPhone selling faster than the HTC Thunderbolt

Earlier this month, a research report from BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk concluded that the HTC Thunderbolt was outselling the Verizon iPhone. This report was based on anecdotal evidence gathered from sales employees and their impressions of which handset was selling faster. Needless to say, the methodology behind this analysis led us to be skeptical of these results; as it turns out, that skepticism was well-founded.

During Verizon's earnings conference call, the wireless carrier confirmed it sold 2.2 million iPhones in the six weeks the handset was available on the network. The carrier also confirmed the 4G-enabled HTC Thunderbolt sold 260,000 in the two weeks it was available. On average, then, Verizon was selling about 360,000 iPhones and 130,000 Thunderbolts per week.

This is a whopping 230K difference in units sold that favors the iPhone. If you stretch out the Thunderbolt sales to six weeks and assume sales continue at the rate noted above (not necessarily the case, as sales would tend to spike at the beginning of the window and trend down, but giving the Thunderbolt the benefit of the doubt), Verizon would have sold 2.2M iPhones and only 780K HTC Thunderbolt handsets.

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Source: http://www22.verizon.com/investor/investor.portal

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Earlier this month, a research report from BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk concluded that the HTC Thunderbolt was outselling the Verizon...

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Brent

The anecdotal evidence that suggested the Thunderbolt was selling better was by contacting Verizon stores, with no thought that a lot of people buy iPhones from the Apple store (or Apple's online store) because they want to buy Apple Care or for various other reasons. I bought mine from the Verizon store in my area because the nearest Apple store is 45 miles away and because I was switching from T-Mobile, I wanted to port my number without any issues. While I was there, I noticed there were several other people in the store in the process of buying iPhones as well. They should have at least tried to contact Verizon stores in areas where there is no Apple store to take iPhone sales away.

April 21 2011 at 2:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jawcl

Fail, the ThunderBolt is a better phone.

April 21 2011 at 12:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

5 replies to Jawcl's comment

brandon

I'm an Android fan and my contract was up w/ Verizon, but I chose to use my upgrade to get my wife an iPhone 4. The Thunderbolt has a ton of issues and wasn't the "right" phone to upgrade to even though I've been waiting since December.

I'm not sure if this is a common position, but since she's not very tech-savvy and the rumors indicate no summer iPhone 5 launch it was the best choice.

I also know a lot of other Android users who are waiting for something compelling from Verizon, but the well has been dry and they're considering iPhone 4. I suspect this was the idea, to push iPhone sales?

April 21 2011 at 12:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

5 replies to brandon's comment

Adrian

The what?

April 21 2011 at 12:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply