Whats a Few Million More?
AT&T (T), of course, being the exclusive service provider for the iPhone in the U.S., is the most obvious beneficiary of the iPhone hysteria. It’s hard to say whether the expected sales boost might already be baked in to its stock price. AT&T’s stock, already a strong performer in 2006 before the company’s association with iPhone became public, has risen 18% since the device was announced. Apple and AT&T are expected to share the $36 activation fee for every new iPhone. And in addition to monthly revenue from calling plans, each iPhone will produce $20 a month for mobile Web surfing and multimedia services. A recent estimate by UBS (UBS) analyst John Hodulik postulated 2 million iPhones sold on AT&T’s network this year, so it’s easy to see how the iPhone could fuel hundreds of millions of dollars in new sales in short order. Yet this is a company that saw $117 billion in 2006 revenue across its telecommunications empire. Samsung, considered the likely supplier of the audio chips for th
