T-Mobile sells about 500,000 iPhone 5s in less than a month

Sales of iPhone 5 continues to be strong with T-Mobile reporting it sold about half a million of the smartphones since it began carrying the popular device almost a month ago.

The Seattle-based carrier made the announcement Wednesday, alongside the release of its first quarter earnings. The number of iPhone 5 devices sold seems to justify the company’s decision to begin carrying the Apple smartphone after being the last major holdout.

If sales keeps up the pace, it could top the 1.5 million iPhone devices Sprint sold in its most recent quarter. T-Mobile’s strong sales numbers are also impressive considering the iPhone 5 launched in the U.S. about seven months before arriving on T-Mobile.

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As for the first quarter results, T-Mobile said it added 3,000 new customers at retail stores, the first time since 2009 that the wireless carrier was able to do have a positive net gain in what it calls “branded customers.”

This year has been a time of big change for the carrier. Besides adding the iPhone to its lineup, T-Mobile also recently closed on its acquisition of MetroPCS, and in March, it stopped selling users service contracts. Instead, T-Mobile switched entirely to a prepaid plan.

“We ended the quarter with strong operational momentum, which is continuing into the second quarter, driven by the successful launch of our un-carrier ‘Simple Choice’ service plan and the introduction of the iPhone into our device lineup,” T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said. “Things only get more exciting from here, having brought T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS together to create the wireless industry’s value leader and premier challenger.”

However, the quarter was not perfect for T-Mobile. Revenue for the quarter was $4.68 billion, down by more than 7% compared to the same period last year. But T-Mobile’s first quarter ended March 31, meaning it didn’t include revenue from its new iPhone customers.

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