Even though it got the drop on Verizon Wireless by being the first company to offer the iPhone, AT&T still signs up fewer customers with contracts. Maybe because by now, smartphone purchases have slowed down after last year’s rush for the newest iPhone. We hear enough bad stuff about both companies to be unsurprised that one is preferred over the other.

The Wall Street Journal says that in the first part of the year, AT&T added 187,000 contract customers, compared with the 501,000 that Verizon reported. When all the numbers were in, AT&T had 726,000 new customers to Verizon’s 734,000.

Another reason AT&T could be behind is that it’s not moving as fast with its 4G LTE service. Once it gets going, they hope business will boom. Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn’t yet work on 4G LTE networks, and everyone still really likes the iPhone.

AT&T activated 4.3 million iPhones this year so far, compared to Verizon’s 3.2 million — which shows that Apple really is the company’s bread and butter.

AT&T Trails Verizon Wireless In Adding Contract Users [Wall Street Journal]

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