Apple Isn’t Taking This Verizon Criticism Very Well

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was down 1.1 percent, or $7.09, at $637.52 after Verizon (NYSE:VZ) said on Thursday morning that it had faced “supply constraints” for the iPhone 5 in the September quarter. Verizon, which was reporting its third-quarter results, added that it had activated 3.1 million iPhones in the quarter overall, including about 651,000 units of the new iPhone 5.

“We had a supply constraints,” Verizon chief financial officer Fran Shammo told analysts about the iPhone 5, adding that the company was not “sure where we are going to stand in the fourth quarter with those constraints.”

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Shammo added that a large number of customers were also coming to the carrier for the iPhone 4S, the price of which was slashed to $99 after the launch of the new version on September 21. The iPhone accounted for 46 percent of the 6.8 million smartphones Verizon sold in the quarter, with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android devices accounting for 3.4 million units.

The iPhone 5 numbers will only represent about a week’s worth of sales in September for all carriers. The phone also went on sale at Verizon rivals Sprint (NYSE:S) and AT&T (NYSE:T) at the same time and a clearer picture for Apple will have to include those figures as well. Apple announced it had sold 5 million units of the device on its launch weekend. While it was a record for any version of the iPhone, the number surprised analysts and investors, who had predicted higher figures.

Apple is said to be struggling to keep up with the high demand, with problems including the availability of the high-resolution screens and other manufacturing difficulties affecting supplies.

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