Unstoppable iPhone #1 Among US Consumers

[AppleChic]

Today the market research firm NPD has reported that the iPhone 3G is the leading handset purchased by adult consumers in the U.S. during the third quarter of the year. This development has put the previously top-ranked Motorola RAZR in the number two spot.

The Motorola RAZR had previously occupied the number one spot for the past three years followed by the Motion's Blackberry Curve, LG's Rumor, and LG's enV2, respectively.

The director of industry analysis for NPD, Ross Rubin, has said:

"The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality," and that "Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features."

Although sales of the iPhone have increased, the mobile phone market as a whole has failed to see its typical holiday jump following the close of the second quarter; domestic handset sales to adult consumers has dwindled by 15 percent year over year in the third quarter to only 32 million units. Also, consumer handset sales total revenue dropped by 10 percent although the average selling price rose 6 percent to $88 per handset.

Rubin further explains:

"A growing data divide continues in cellular handsets, those who see the value in wireless Internet access are justifying the investment, whereas voice-centric users have little incentive to upgrade, which is obviously detrimental to operators who seek to sell data plans and media access services to their subscribers."

NPD collects their data from online surveys every month that are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. adult consumers age 18 and over.

It's difficult to tell exactly how consumers will react if the economy continues its current down trend. Executives for the major U.S. wireless operators do believe that consumers are not likely to downgrade their cell phones as a result. However, executives agree that they are more likely to downgrade service plans.

Source: AppleInsider | iPhone trumps RAZR as most purchased US consumer handset

[cricketlang]

Nice. Despite recent Speculations the iPhone still manages to stay at the top and very much alive.

[mrsidewayzz]

i wonder what the numbers of the G1 are looking like... lol.

[sziklassy]

i wonder what the numbers of the G1 are looking like... lol.

Way too early to compare to any of the competition just yet.

[saifeeab]

but as said before america is not the world. looking at thos charts i still see symbian OS dominating the market in the rest of the world. "out there" apple is still way behind with a hardly noticeable bar in those charts.

[mgamber]

Yeah, iPhone might be #1, but #1 at what exactly? Maybe #1 in quarterly sales in California for the last quarter? Maybe?

Oh, I get it now...their sales are increasing at a faster rate than anyone else's sales. They don't have squat for market share but they're outselling a couple other platforms in the US. If this was 5 years ago I'd be buying stock in Apple right about now but a whole lot of people are starting to have to make decisions like "food or cellphone?" so I'm not banking on this continuing much longer.

[Rosbaughcr]

COmparing by the OS hardly seems like a legitimate comparison, considering how many different devices use the Symbian OS. the iPhone is the ONLY device running the Apple OS, and the number of carriers that offer the iPhone is limited, neither of which is true for Symbian OS devices.

[ej6 wut]

apple ftw