Sprint sold best-ever 2.2M iPhones in holiday quarter

Sprint has announced its fourth-quarter earnings for 2012, which included the sale of 2.2 million iPhones. A full 38 percent of those went to new customers. Overall, Sprint sold 6.6 million iPhones in 2012, which isn't too shabby.

That 38 percent new-customer acquisition number is good news for the company, too. Overall in 2012, 40 percent of all iPhone sales went to new customers. Sprint sold 20 million smartphones in total during 2012.

Those 2.2 million iPhones sold last quarter represent an increase from the 1.5 million activated over the last three consecutive quarters.

There was bad news, too. Sprint lost US$0.44 per share in the fourth quarter, or $1.32 billion, despite the increased iPhone sales.