Verizon’s Q2 iPhone activations grow 44 percent to hit 3.9M, beating estimates of 3.5M

Verizon’s iPhone activations in Q2 this year grew 44 percent to reach 3.9 million, beating analyst predictions of 3.5 million. The iPhone continued to be responsible for more than half of Verizon’s sales. Overall smartphone penetration increased from 50 percent last year to 64 percent this year … 

Verizon reported modest 4.3 percent year-on-year revenue growth, reaching $29.8B in Q2 2013. Adjusted EPS growth (discounting gains from pension growth and similar) was stronger at 14.1 percent to reach $0.73, while postpaid ARPA (average revenue per account) was up 6.4 percent at $152.50.

The WSJ reported that Verizon had done particularly well in the key post-paid market.

Verizon Wireless added 941,000 of the most profitable postpaid subscribers, up from 888,000 additions a year earlier and 677,000 additions in the prior quarter. It added 1.04 million total subscribers during the quarter, pushing its base to 100.1 million connections.

The company claims to be leading the industry in LTE adoption, with 4G data accounting for 59 percent of total data traffic. Verizon activated 6.4M LTE devices in the second quarter of this year.