Who Sells All Those iPhones?

Conventional wisdom suggests that consumers gravitate toward Apple Stores when buying an iPhone. Advertising, anecdotes, and memes all point in that direction, showing customers waiting in line at an Apple Store for the latest model. For those of us who live near one or more of the 272 US Apple Stores, it makes sense.

In reality, carrier stores - AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile - actually dominate the market, accounting for two-thirds of US iPhone sales. Apple has a respectable but smaller share of total sales with roughly one quarter, while other retailers sell the remaining less than 10% (Chart 1).