Sprint reported selling 1.4 million iPhones during its second fiscal quarter for 2013 with 41 percent of those sales going to new customers. That sales figure is down slightly from the 1.5 million iPhones the cell service provider sold last quarter, but still shows Apple's combination smartphone and media player is a draw.
The carrier's overall subscriber numbers were down quarter-over-quarter from 55.2 million to 53.6 million.
Sprint's revenue was up about 8 percent year-over-year at US$7.2 billion, but down from last quarter's $8.8 billion. The company also reported a net loss of $1.6 billion for the quarter, which included $430 million it wrote off as part of shutting down Nextel.
In comparison, Verizon reported a 44 percent year-over-year increase in iPhone sales for its second fiscal quarter with 3.9 million units. AT&T, however, didn't offer specific numbers for its quarterly iPhone sales, but did say they were up.
Apple beat analyst estimates for the quarter when it reported selling 31.2 million iPhones world wide. Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the time, “We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services.”
The quarter also marked Sprint completing its purchase of Clearwire and US Cellular, plus SoftBank's $21.6 billion buyout. Looking forward, Sprint plans to use the SoftBank cash infusion to continue expanding its fast LTE network to better compete with AT&T and Verizon.