The Apple iPhone 3G was the most popular mobile phone sold in the United States based on number of phones sold through 10 months of the year, a new report by Nielsen indicates.
Following the iPhone 3G is the Research In Motion BlackBerry 8300 mobile phone, with the Motorola RAZR V3 rounding out the top three. Specifically, the iPhone had 4% of the "embedded base of all subscribers" from Jan. 2009 until Oct. 2009, with the RIM offering securing 3.7% of the same market. The RAZR V3 had just 2.3%, while the No. 4 phone, the LG enV2, had just 2.1% of the market.
The mobile phones ranking from No. 5 to No. 10 -- all with less than 2% -- vary from the LG Voyager, Samsung Rant, RIM BlackBerry Storm, LG Dare, LG Vu, and the RIM BlackBerry 8100 line of smartphones. The three BlackBerry devices account for 6.3% of all mobile phone use, with the four LG models accounting for 6.4%.
The popularity of the iPhone has been well known, but the fact that two smartphones were the most popular devices of 2009 indicate a continuing trend in the rise of popularity of smartphones. Furthermore, Apple and RIM may receive a sales boost in 2010 now that Vonage said it will offer low-cost, long-distance calls for iPhone and BlackBerry phone owners.
If AT&T finally loses exclusive rights to the iPhone, Apple could see a significant sales boost from Verizon Wireless subscribers who have been anxious to get ahold of the iPhone.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I see trendy college students all the way to grandparents with iPhones, which shows how successful Apple has been at marketing the device. Most tech people I meet with in Silicon Valley still rely on a BlackBerry model, as Apple still hasn't been able to convince many enterprise users to switch to the iPhone.
