Just a few years ago smartphones were a niche product, but not any more. Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest carrier, says that half of its handset sales last quarter were smartphones.

The numbers are even higher for consumers with a contract -- nearly 75% of this group purchased a smartphone.

The company sold 5.9 million advanced phones last quarter, of which 2.9 million ran the Android OS. It sold 2.7 million Apple iPhone units. About 40% current customers who purchased a new device got their first smartphone.

Healthy Growth

Verizon continues to grow, adding 1.2 million customers in the second quarter. By the end of the quarter, the company had 94.2 million customers, a 4.9% increase year over year.

As of today, Verizon' 4G LTE network is available to more than 230 million people ? nearly 75% of the U.S. population. And it's clearly popular: it sold 2.5 million new Droids that can access this network, and revenue from wireless data was up 18.5% year-over-year, accounting for nearly 44% of all the carrier's service revenues.

Overall, Verizon enjoyed a $1.83 billion profit, from $28.6 billion in revenue, in the second quarter of this year.