View this article at: http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/10/06/iphone.3g.tops.bberry/
Monday, Oct 06, 2008 10:25am
iPhone 3G now 17% of US smartphone market
The iPhone 3G's launch propelled Apple to the top of the US smartphone market in the summer and near the peak of the smartphone ranks in the US, according to NPD Group data. The phone outsold the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl and Palm Centro in the June through August window and used the spike generated by the launch to give all iPhones about 17 percent of the US smartphone business from January through August, or more than one in six smartphones sold in the country.

The figures are targeted at typical sales, however, and don't include corporate sales that often favor BlackBerries and Windows Mobile devices in the US.

Researchers at NPD nonetheless describe the iPhone 3G as potentially damaging sales at carriers rivaling AT&T. About 30 percent of all iPhone 3G buyers during the summer period had switched from another US carrier to pick up Apple's hardware. Almost half of this group, or 47 percent, were converts from Verizon; 24 percent were T-Mobile users, while 19 percent were from Sprint.

The iPhone and its competitors helped push down the average selling price of a smartphone in the US down from $236 a year ago to $174 today.

No mention has yet been made of specific iPhone sales estimates or a breakdown of sales by model, though Apple is now thought to have neared or reached the 10 million unit mark for total sales since mid-2007.