E-Commerce Times' Keith Regan reports today that "although AT&T's second-quarter earnings surpassed expectations, its results were overshadowed by data showing that iPhone sign-ups fell short of expectations."

The company's net profit was a whopping $2.9 billion for the quarter - that's a 61 percent increase over the previous year - due in large part to the Cingular acquisition. Still, the company said it had only activated 146,000 subscriptions for the iPhone in the 48 hours following its launch on June 29.

In response, Apple's stock dropped 6 percent.

Still, as Regan points out, "The activation numbers don't necessarily reflect how well the iPhone sold. Some users may not have immediately signed up for a calling plan for the phone, while other early buyers may have tried to resell their devices."

More here from Bloomberg ... more here from MarketWatch ... more here from Reuters ... and the press release is here.