Verizon said Monday that revenue in its second business quarter rose 11 percent year over year to $26.9 billion. Still, earnings per share only amounted to 52 cents in the quarter, versus 66 cents in the same period last year.
Verizon Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl admitted a noticeable “uptick” in customer exit rates in the last couple of weeks of June due to AT&T’s launch of the iPhone 3GS. But he insisted that Verizon isn’t losing too many customers due to its lack of an iPhone offering. Strigl also credited Apple’s red-hot device for expanding the smartphone market overall.
“When you think about what Apple has done in bringing the iPhone into the marketplace, it truly has accelerated innovation,” Strigl said. “And as we talk to all of our manufacturers, everybody has come out with their own iconic device and I think that this has been very good overall for our customers.”
Adding the Palm Pre
Strigl’s praise lends some credibility to recent industry reports that Verizon is engaged in talks with Apple about obtaining a CDMA version of the iPhone once AT&T’s exclusive agreement ends. During last week’s Fortune Brainstorm conference, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said his company’s exclusive iPhone deal with Apple would not last forever.
Having the iPhone would doubtlessly help Verizon attract new subscribers as well as help encourage existing voice customers to upgrade to more lucrative data plans. AT&T CFO Richard Lindner said last week that 35 percent of the carrier’s iPhone 3GS buyers “were customers new to AT&T” and more than 50 percent “did not previously have a data plan.”
But even without an Apple iPhone, Verizon expects to continue to attract new wireless customers by refreshing its smartphone lineup.
“You can expect to see a steady stream of attractive devices coming,” Strigl said. “We plan to refresh…