US Smartphone Revs UP 84% : RIM Tops, Says NPD Group

By Contributor Wireless and Mobile News on September 17, 2008 12:35 PM

According to The NPD Group, consumer sales of smartphones to U.S. consumers reached 9 million units from January through July 2008 versus the same time period last year - a year-over-year increase of 84 percent.

The consumer unit-sales ranking of smartphone manufacturers is as follows:

RIM
Apple
Palm
Samsung
Motorola

Even as overall handset sales and revenues declined in the U.S., smartphone revenue increased 71 percent - reaching nearly $1.7 billion. With the launch of Apple's iPhone 3G in July 2008, Apple leapt to second in smartphone unit sales, behind RIM.

As a percentage of overall handset sales to consumers in the U.S. from January through July 2008, smartphones represented 19 percent of all handset purchases compared to just 9 percent for the same period last year.

The average price of a smartphone sold between January and July 2008 was $185, down 7 percent from $199 during the same period last year. "As they become inexpensive gateways to the Internet from practically anywhere, smartphones are delivering a better consumer value than ever before; however, more must be done to show the advantages of their operating systems to keep them ahead of increasingly sophisticated feature phones," Rubin said.

Even as the market reacted to the launch of Apple's iPhone 3G in July, RIM and Palm both saw consumer unit-sales gains against the competition in the first seven months of 2008 - posting growth of 24 percent and 9 percent (respectively).

Methodology: The NPD Group compiles and analyzes mobile device sales data based on more than 150,000 completed online consumer research surveys each month. Surveys are based on a nationally balanced and demographically-representative sample, and results are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. consumers. Note: Sales figures do not include corporate/enterprise mobile phone sales.