Cellphone Unit Sales in First Quarter Were “Weakest in Years”

With no new iPhone model to boost sales, major U.S. carriers saw little if any gain in traditional contract customers during the first quarter, according to a new report.

Indeed, Jefferies & Co. said that the first quarter could mark the first time ever that the number of postpaid customers actually declined. “A Jefferies proprietary handset survey suggests volume expectations for [the first quarter] are the weakest in years, in line with our view that net adds are significantly lower in the quarter after an iPhone launch,” analyst Thomas Seitz said in a research note. Jefferies sees “modest” growth in traditional customers for AT&T and Verizon, but declines at both T-Mobile and Sprint, which saw a big jump last quarter — its first with an iPhone.