The NPD Group reports that the buy-one-get- one" promotion by Verizon
Wireless helped RIM's BlackBerry Curve outsell Apple's iPhone to
become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S. in the first
quarter (Q1) of 2009.
RIM's consumer smartphone market share increased
15 percent to nearly 50 percent of the smartphone market in Q1 2009 versus the prior quarter, as Apple's and Palm's share both declined 10 percent each.
Based on U.S. consumer sales of smartphone handsets in NPD's
"Smartphone Market Update" report, the first-quarter 2009 ranking of
the top-five best- selling smartphones is as follows:
1. RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models).
2. Apple iPhone 3G (all
models).
3. RIM BlackBerry Storm.
4. RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models,
except flip).
5. T-Mobile G1.
"Verizon Wireless's aggressive marketing of the BlackBerry Storm and
its buy-one-get-one BlackBerry promotion to its large customer base
contributed to RIM capturing three of the top five positions," said
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at The NPD Group. "The more
familiar, and less expensive, Curve benefited from these giveaways and
was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the
four major U.S. national carriers."
Smartphones, which represented just 17 percent of handset sales
volume in Q1 2008, now make up 23 percent of sales. "Even in this
challenging economy, consumers are migrating toward Web-capable
handsets and their supporting data plans to access more information and
entertainment on the go." Rubin said.
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.