Verizon Wireless Seen Benefiting More Than AT&T From IPad

Verizon Wireless is poised to get a bigger boost from Apple Inc.’s new iPad than competing wireless-service provider AT&T Inc., even though both carriers will be the first in the U.S. to sell the tablet, unveiled March 7.

Verizon Wireless will probably sell 3 million to 4 million new iPads this year, while AT&T will sell about 2 million units, said Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie Securities USA Inc. The iPad is designed to work on the companies’ next-generation wireless networks, based on a technology called long-term evolution, or LTE.