Increasing Smartphone Sales and Data Use
U.S. Cellular customers have always expected excellent customer service and network quality, and we believe they should also expect the most advanced smartphones and data devices.
We offered a very competitive device portfolio in 2010, including the highly rated Samsung Mesmerize™ (a Galaxy S™ smartphone) and Samsung Galaxy Tab™, and three other Android®–powered devices; as well as popular BlackBerry® and Windows®–based models. Maintaining the competitiveness of our lineup will be a priority going forward.
At the end of 2010, the number of customers with smartphones was nearly
17 percent of our postpaid base, compared to seven percent at the end of 2009, and smartphones were 25 percent of the total devices sold in 2010, compared to ten percent in 2009.
This in turn led to greater use of data and a slight increase in average revenue per customer, compared to 2009. While the subsidies required to offer smartphones at competitive prices have a negative impact on profitability in the short term, we expect the higher lifetime value of smartphone customers to outweigh this impact over the long term.
