Disclaimer: The following information is based on “popularity,” as in not cold hard sales stats since that info is not made available by either mobile carriers or manufacturers (and therefore, the rankings below are subjective). The ranking information (below) is provided by AvianResearch L.L.C. and is culled from its Monthly Retail Store Survey where it surveys 100 service reps and store mgrs from across the four major U.S. wireless carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile) – though we’re not sure how asking 100 retail employees about their favorite phones is really indicative of anything. According to AvianResearch, these four carriers represent 85% of all U.S. mobile subscribers.
With that said, lets take a quick look over these too cool for school mobiles. Edging out Apple’s iPhone 3G for the top spot is none other than the vivacious BlackBerry Curve. RIM has got to feel pretty good about itself, what with 3 devices in the top 10 and helping Canada take home first place. Although not standing on the podium, both LG and Samsung also make a solid showing with 3 devices each in the top 10, giving South Korea an incredibly strong presence with 6 total handsets. That leaves America with just one popularity medal, Apple’s iPhone 3G standing alone at #2.
Here are the Top 10 Most Popular U.S. mobile devices in December 2008:
|
Device
|
Last Month’s Rank
|
Available At
|
|
| 1. RIM Blackberry Curve |
1
|
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, others
|
|
| 2. Apple iPhone |
2
|
AT&T
|
|
| 3. BlackBerry Storm |
3
|
Verizon Wireless
|
|
| 4. LG Voyager |
6
|
Verizon Wireless
|
|
| 5. LG Dare |
4
|
Verizon Wireless
|
|
| 6. BlackBerrry Bold |
5
|
AT&T
|
|
| 7. Samsung Rant |
Not ranked
|
Sprint Nextel
|
|
| 8. Samsung Behold |
9
|
T-Mobile
|
|
| 9. Samsung Instinct |
10
|
Sprint Nextel
|
|
| 10. LG Env2 |
8
|
Verizon Wireless
|
|
| Source: Rankings provided by AvianResearch L.L.C. | |||
[via RCRWireless]