Best Buy’s iPhone Sales Nearly Equal to Apple’s, Sprint Halfway There Already (BBY, AAPL, T, VZ, S)

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) sold nearly as many iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the past three months as Apple itself did. In a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners cited at the WSJ’s AllThingsDigital blog, Best Buy accounted for 13% of iPhone sales compared with Apple’s 15%.

The largest share of sales goes to AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) with 32%, followed by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) with 30%, and Sprint Nextel Inc. (NYSE: S) with 7%. The numbers include both retail and online sales. Retail stores now account for 76% of iPhone sales, with the remaining 26% of sales occurring online.

It’s interesting that Sprint already sells more than half the number sold by Best Buy. When the company announced its “all-in” strategy with the iPhone, most people thought the plan would fail. But based on the numbers, Sprint looks like it’s doing okay. So far.

Paul Ausick