Sprint Sold 2.2 Million iPhones Last Quarter, Still Posted A Loss

During its earnings report today Sprint announced that it sold 2.2 million iPhones last quarter, but still posted a loss of $1.32 billion.

During the quarter Sprint sold its highest number of iPhones ever, though it’s 2.2 million iPhones is still less than the number of units both AT&T and Verizon sold during the same quarter. Unlike the other two national carriers, the iPhone wasn’t the top-selling phone on Sprint during its last quarter.

The top-selling smartphone on Sprint during the Q4 2012 was the Samsung Galaxy S3. Sprint didn’t give any numbers for the smartphone, but it would have to exceed 2.2 million sales in the quarter to put it above the iPhone. That is unless Sprint broke down iPhone sales by model internally, which seems unlikely.

In total Sprint 6.1 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2012. The carrier claims that 89 percent of its postpaid subscribers chose smartphones over feature phones.

Since the start of 2012 Sprint sold 6.6 million iPhones, barely over its total number of smartphone sales in the last quarter of the year.

Despite selling 6.1 million smartphones, including a large number of iPhones and Galaxy S 3 devices, Sprint still posted a big loss. The carrier blames some of the loss on the money it spent on its Network Vision plan and the cost of shutting down its old Nextel network. Combined the rollout and shutdown cost the company $400 million.

Sprint also lost a total of $45 million to Hurricane Sandy in the New York Metro area in October.

The fourth quarter of 2012 was the first full quarter for Sprint since it announced Softbank will acquire the company. The Softbank deal is still on track, but it won’t close until sometime in the middle of this year. That means Sprint still has at least another quarter or two before the effects of the buyout are seen.