Verizon announced its earnings for the fourth quarter and revealed that it had activated 6.2 million iPhones and a record-breaking 9.8 million smartphones.

During the earnings call Verizon said it sold 6.2 million iPhones and almost half were 4G LTE iPhones. That would mean Verizon sold around 3 million iPhone 5 smartphones since it's the only iPhone model that has a 4G LTE radio. The number of iPhones sold in the fourth quarter is about double the number Verizon sold in the third quarter. This was expected as customers were waiting for the release of the iPhone 5 and were putting off purchasing a new iPhone until the iPhone 5 was released.

"In total, Verizon activated 9.8 million smartphones, "which was by far, our highest total ever," Verizon's chief financial officer, Fran Shammo, said during a conference call with analysts.

After the 6.2 million iPhones, Android devices "made up a majority of the remaining smartphones" sold, Shammo said. About 87 percent of post-paid phone sales were smartphones, while about 30 percent of smartphone activations were new to Verizon. About 42 percent of customers who upgraded during the quarter were buying a smartphone for the first time, Shammo said."

Smartphones with LTE radios were a big hit for Verizon. It announced that it had sold 7.3 million 4G LTE devices. Over 6.4 million devices were smartphones with 4G LTE. Verizon also announced that its tablet sales doubled over the previous quarter.