While Verizon did note that sales have rebounded this month, there remains a discouraging trend in the US toward lower smartphone sales. This trend also includes iPhone sales specifically. Analysts at securities firm UBS made a point of connecting Verizon‘s poor Q1 postpaid phone numbers with a more moderate level of demand for smartphones in the country.
“The weak upgrade results and nearly stagnant equipment revenues suggest that the smartphone market in the U.S. remains slow, which could impact Apple’s sales, which heavily depend on this market”
-David Vogt, UBS analyst
Verizon‘s Q1 results also showed a small .7% increase in wireless equipment revenue to $5.398 billion dollars which topped expectations. The data does dovetail with the drop in stateside smartphone demand. Verizon also noted that the chaos of the tariff fiasco didn’t lead Verizon subscribers to run out and buy new iPhones before the additional import tax imposed on imports from China would take effect. The wireless provider said that it did not see any huge impact on its revenue from such iPhone purchases. Additional iPhone units shipped to Verizon ended up in the carrier’s inventory rather than subscribers’ hands.
As a result, this means that customers of the trio could be seeing price hikes when purchasing new phones, tablets, smartwatches, and other wireless gear. The big question is whether President Trump continues to use the tariffs as a form of retribution for what he sees as past transgressions, real or imagined, made by America’s trading partners against the US.
