AT&T has just reported outstanding quarterly financial results, but its shares took a hit, as did Apple's -- down $8.81 at the moment. The reason? According to The New York Times (headline above): "AT&T said it signed up 146,000 iPhone customers, well below analyst estimates, which ran as high as 500,000 units."
The phone went on sale on June 29, two days before the quarter ended, amid fanfare surpassed only by the release of the final "Harry Potter" book last week.
The number could also reflect the difficulty many iPhone customers reported experiencing when they tried to activate their phones during the first few days, analysts said.
The Wall Street Journal takes much the same line, saying: "Some analysts had expected AT&T to sign up as many as 700,000 customers over the first three days."
It would really be unwise to judge the enterprise on two days' results, but it may be that some expectations were overinflated by the teeming flood of iPhone hype. Even a year wouldn't be enough.
