AT&T claims to sell twice as many smartphones as any competitor

Computerworld - Twice as many smartphone users have picked AT&T Inc. over any other wireless U.S. carrier, owing to the carrier's selection of smartphones, its fast wireless network and its 20,000 hot spots, according to research that the telecommunications company released today.

The popularity of text messaging and mobile data applications, including those for social networking, has led customers in record numbers to upgrade to smartphones and other phones with full QWERTY keyboards, which AT&T calls "integrated devices. Today, nearly 32% of AT&T subscribers who purchase service on a monthly plan use an integrated device, the company said. Overall, AT&T serves 78 million wireless customers.

The research was provided to AT&T by Comscore Inc., an independent market research firm, according to an AT&T spokeswoman in an interview. The carrier plans to use the findings to bolster an advertising campaign it is about to launch. It did not divulge any of the supporting data that Comscore provided about AT&T or its competitors.

While AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the U.S., today's statement does not include the iPhone on the short list of "iconic devices" that AT&T sells. The statement cited only the BlackBerry Bold and the Nokia E71x, which went on sale May 4.

"We couldn't list all our iconic smartphones," said the spokeswoman, who declined to say whether the iPhone is AT&T's best-selling smartphone, as many analysts believe it is. AT&T has sold more than 21 million iPhones since mid-2007, mostly in the U.S.

The spokeswoman refused to comment on whether the iPhone omission could have anything to do with rumors that AT&T competitor Verizon Wireless is negotiating with Apple to become an iPhone reseller.

AT&T's statement briefly mentions the iPhone's OS X operating system as an example of an open operating system, which is a feature that a device must have in order to meet AT&T's definition of a smartphone. AT&T defines a smartphone as a device that has a QWERTY keyboard --- either a physical one or one displayed on a touch screen -- and an open operating system. While the iPhone's OS X variant is only used for Apple's iPhone, it is still considered "open" because the iPhone works with any number of applications.

Comscore's research shows that the number of subscribers using smartphones and quick messaging phones (phones with text and picture messaging, instant messaging tools and other mobile data applications) has more than doubled in the past year, according to AT&T.

AT&T noted, without mentioning the iPhone, that it carries smartphones that use five different open operating systems and that it has nine types of Wi-Fi-capable devices, as well as five touch-screen phones. All of the AT&T smartphones can be used around the globe because they operate on the GSM standard, which is used in nearly 90% of the world, the company noted.

One analyst seemed perplexed as to why AT&T would be doing better than Verizon or Sprint Nextel Corp. in smartphone sales. "AT&T does seem to be focused on the growing smartphone revolution," said Jeff Kagan, an independent analyst. "They started preparing their network years ago. However, so did their competitors. All competitors are seeing an explosion in demand for smartphones, so why is AT&T so far ahead? It is very interesting."

Kagan said AT&T is selling smartphones so quickly that two-thirds of its new sales could be smartphones by the end of 2009.

Read more about Mobile and Wireless in Computerworld's Mobile and Wireless Topic Center.