Spint (S) Losing Ground With New Products: Improvements At AT&T (T) And Verizon (VZ)(VOD)

Sales of the new Samsung Instinct are not helping Sprint (S) very much. Of all the handsets the No.3 US cellular carrier sells, the Instinct ranks N0.15 in terns of unit sales and No.7 in terms of sales revenue, accourding to Comscore. The figures are based on sales at each carrier’s website.

The high-end phones at the other three large US carriers are much better at generating revenue.

That Apple (AAPL)  iPhone is the top revenue producer for AT&T (T) although it ranks only No.9 in unit sales.

The HTC G1, with the Google (GOOG) Android system is the No.1 revenue producer for T-Mobile but ranks only No.8 in units. The top revenue producer for Verizon  Wireless (VZ)(VOD) is the RIM (RIMM) Blackberry Storm. The RIMM product also ranks No.8 in unit sales.

The news reinforces that value of the high-end, expensive smart phone as a critical part of the product line-up of carriers. There is also a great deal of data showing that the consumers who have these phones are willing to pay higher subscription and data fees than other customers.

Douglas A. McIntyre