Forty percent of Sprint’s 1.8 million iPhone sales in the fourth quarter were to new customers.
The company reported total net subscriber additions of 1.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2011 – the best quarterly result in six years – bringing total ending subscribers to the highest level in the company’s history.
It was still a tough quarter for Sprint, reporting a net loss of $1.3 billion.
Part of the net loss is probably due to subsidizing the cost of 1.8 million iPhones (I don’t know what the specific amount is, but a per-phone subsidy of $100-$300 equates to $180-$540 million) Also 1.6 million new subscribers means they’re on track to make it back over the next two years. (1.6 mill x 24 months x $50/month = $1.92 billion, conservatively) If they can keep bringing in new customers they’ll pull out of it, but the iPhone seems like it was a ‘bet the company’ move; I hope it pays off.