AT&T recently revealed some of its Q3 data, and the carrier says it saw 900,000 fewer smartphone upgrades compared to the year ago quarter. A recent Bloomberg piece suggests that the AT&T drop in year-over-year smartphone sales could be a sign that the iPhone 8 isn’t doing so hot.
If the iPhone 8 had been a hit out of the gate, then I would have expected AT&T’s upgrade number might at least have fallen less dramatically.
It does mention that AT&T’s Q3 only included about a week of iPhone 8 sales which isn’t enough to make a judgment, and that the data includes all smartphones, not just iPhones (although it’s amazing to think about one smartphone model being able to influence an entire quarter of carrier sales in one week).
While there are many factors at play, if iPhone 8 sales are lower than Apple anticipated, could Apple also have underestimated how many consumers are waiting to purchase the iPhone X?
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