It's a smartphone that's over a year old and a new version is just a few weeks away from being released (we think). But Apple's iPhone 4 continues to sell well very well at its two US outlets, Verizon and AT&T, even with those two factors in place. AllthingsD.com reports that in a note to investors today, Stern Agee analyst Shaw Wu said, "We had modeled a sizeable quarter-to-quarter decline to reflect a pause and inventory drawdown ahead of a refresh and we now think this is conservative."
Another analyst, Canaccord Genuit's T. Michael Walkley, agrees, saying, "Our checks indicated strong sales of the iPhone 4, as it remained the top selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon despite increasing consumer expectations for the iPhone 5 launch." Indeed, AT&T still manages to sell units of the iPhone 3GS, a smartphone that is now over two years old.
So why is the public so interested in buying the iPhone 4 despite its age and the imminent launch of the iPhone 5?? One reason is simply that Apple's smartphone is still perceived by the public to have a better design and better features than any other smartphone, even though there are plenty of rival devices that have more advanced features. Another reason might be iTunes which is integrated tightly into the iPhone, offering a one stop shop for downloading apps, movies, TV shows, music, podcasts and books.
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