There's good news and bad news in AT&T's third quarter report. The carrier's profit dropped to $3.6 billion for the quarter -- that's down from $12.32 billion from this time last year. That drop could be due in part to the loss of iPhone exclusivity (a matter latterly compounded with the addition of Sprint as a carrier for the 4S) and the fact that the company pulled in profits from the sale of assets in 2010. AT&T activated 2.7 million iPhones during Q3, a marked drop over earlier quarters. (Though, admittedly, last Q3 saw the launch of the iPhone 4 -- this Q3 saw people waiting for an iPhone 5.). On the up side of things, the sale of Android devices has more than doubled, year over year. AT&T added 2.1 million digital telephone subscribers, passing 100 million, which the carrier seems quite pleased with, as evidenced by the exceedingly chipper video below.



Update: AT&T dropped us a line to point out that the gains from a one-time tax give-and-take also significantly contributed to the company's 2010 profit and by scope the drop in profits year-over-year. as it should be to an AT&T spokesperson, "If you take those former items out of the mix, profit was absolutely up 13-percent year-over-year. In addition, cellular phone margins were up significantly, which means cell telephone profits increased."



Update 2: AT&T also announced this morning that it had activated one million units of the iPhone 4S as of Tuesday. Press release is act underneath the video below.

Continue reading AT&T's profits are down, but the carrier is still smiling

AT&T's profits are down, but the carrier is still smiling at first appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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