iPhone 3G overtakes the RAZR as best-selling domestic handset
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Nov 10th 2008 10:15AM
posted Nov 10th 2008 10:15AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The NPD Group: iPhone 3G Leads U.S. Consumer Mobile Phone Purchases in the Third Quarter of 2008
Overall consumer mobile phone purchases declined 15 percent year-over-year
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 10, 2008 – According to The NPD Group, the leader in market research for the wireless industry, Apple's iPhone 3G surpassed the Motorola RAZR as the leading handset purchased by adult consumers in the U.S. in the third quarter (Q3) of 2008. RAZR had been ranked by NPD as the top-selling consumer handset for the past 12 quarters.
Even with stronger consumer sales of iPhone, and the mobile phone market's normal seasonal uplift after Q2, domestic handset purchases by adult consumers declined 15 percent year over year in Q3 to 32 million units. Consumer handset sales revenue fell 10 percent to $2.9 billion, even as the average selling price (ASP) rose 6 percent to $88.
Top-selling handsets and mobile phone brands
"The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD. "Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features."
The top handset models in rank order, based on unit sales in Q3, were as follows:
1. Apple iPhone 3G
2. Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)
3. RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)
4. LG Rumor
5. LG enV2
Popular features
When it comes to the specific features that motivated U.S. consumers to purchase their handsets, 43 percent of handset buyers cited the need for a camera and 36 percent noted the ability to send and receive text messages. Mobile phones with a QWERTY keyboard experienced the greatest year-over-year rise in sales; 30 percent of handsets were sold with this feature in Q3 2008, versus just 11 percent the year prior. Also this quarter 83 percent of phones purchased were Bluetooth enabled (versus 72 percent last year), and 68 percent of phones purchased in Q3 were music enabled (versus 49 percent last year).
"A growing data divide continues in cellular handsets," Rubin said. "Those who see the value in wireless Internet access are justifying the investment, whereas voice-centric users have little incentive to upgrade, which is obviously detrimental to operators who seek to sell data plans and media-access services to their subscribers."
Methodology: NPD 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 of U.S. adults. Results are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. consumers age 18 and older.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,600 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment, fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software, sports, toys, and wireless. For more information, visit http://www.npd.com/.
WOW...What a great phone to compete against. But then again RAZR is actually more advanced since it can copy/paste/video/mms and the battery lasts longer too :-)
What's that? Jealous much?
I be SO ready to switch from my little orange PEBL to an iPhone, but this little flip phone has one thing that the iPhone ain't got: native handsfree voice-dialing. That makes this space pirate very sad :(
Yeah, I'm sure Steve Ballmer and the CEO of Palm, Ed Colligan, fully agree with you...
I love my Iphone, but really, the RAZR is 3 years old. It had a lot of buzz, but now the Iphone had more. So yea.
@Captain Drew -
Who cares if it's "native"?
My iPhone's a computer. If I want, I can install a voicedialing application that works well on that computer. What does "native" have to do with it?
You can keep your RAZR.
I own one that I used to use and, let me tell you, that stupid phone kept having voice quality problems. What good is a phone if you can barely hear the person you're speaking to because you also hear a lot of cellular interference as well?
On top of that, the problem occurred after the warranty expired, so I was stuck with that until I was given an iPhone as a gift.
I preferred a Blackberry but, in this case, the iPhone is a nice phone, not to mention a very nice gift. A nice phone is a nice phone, so I wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth and, finally, I have a phone where I could hear the person I'm talking to with clarity.
And, I'll admit, I have gotten to like my iPhone as it has been very handy and pretty cool. It would've been nice if it was more obscure because that would enhance the cool factor instead of it being cool AND commonplace.
Now, I did have difficulties with the phone dropping calls and crap, but since I upgraded the firmware to version 2.1, the problems were the things of the past, unlike the buzzing RAZR.
But, ultimately, I have a phone that works as a phone. I can hear people clearly and they can hear me. The rest of the phone is icing, except for the fact that you can't replace the battery yourself very easily.
No surprise here, smartphone technology is maturing
Thank you Engadget for making a big deal about the successful launch of a product in one quarter of the year and noting that it's sold more units than a phone that's been out for about four years or so. I also like your sense of perspective in comparing one quarter's sales and quoting a small scale customer satisfaction survey.
It's good to see your sense of proportion remains spot on.
Or maybe we should just come back next quarter when RIM is holding down the iPhone wang slapping it in the face shouting "Who's your Daddy now, bitch?".
Gotta love these douches who love to point out the few VERY MINOR things that its missing, completely ignoring the countless of other things that blow away every other phone out there. Oh wow you can copy and paste on your RAZR, but what good is that when your software is virtually non-existent. So I guess copy and paste is really a feature that sells phones huh, only because the mighty iPhone doesn't have it. Maybe copy and paste is more important to you than desktop class software built off OSX thats more powerful and more robust than any other handheld on the planet, but thats cool whatever gets you through the day man. Go ahead, use your special copy and paste thats basically worthless on a phone that can't take advantage of it due to limited software, while I browse the web in a true desktop browser or download amazing apps that add functionality no other handheld has or could even come close to imitating. Enjoy your precious copy and paste, but I actually do have MMS from an app I downloaded for free, so there goes one more precious feature for you guys to nitpick over.
I swear kids get so jealous and just like to think they're cool by hating on whatevers popular. They think going "against the grain" makes them special, but all it does it make you just like every other moron who does the same thing.
YES THATS BECAUSE ITS THE BEST PHONE, I KNOW CAUSE ITS MADE BY APPLE AND IVE GOT ONE
in other words, because it was a global launch date, and because everyone who bought the crippled first gen wanted a 3G connection, they sold a crapload in a short amount of time, more than RAZRs in the same amount of time.
"in other words, because it was a global launch date, they sold a crapload in a short amount of time"
Er, if you read the article this was US figures so global launch had nothing to do with it.
Damn apple wasn't playing any games when it planned to takeover the mobile industry! The phone is too locked down and limited in functionality for my tastes but I am very happy for them. I hope this brings in a new era of higher standards and innovation by the rest of the companies to get off their asses and stop slacking.
It's also a testament to the competitive data plan pricing in the US. I just hope the iPhone can lead to similar results here in Canada. I thought about getting a voice+data phone this year, but the costs here led me to stick with a simple voice-only phone. We'll see how that changes over time.
Well actually it's not that cheaper in the us. It used to be 20$ for unlimited but I think its now 30$ for the 3g unlimited plan with AT&T compared to the 30$ 6gb plan with Rogers. Alright its not unlimited but I use the 3g network all the time and i've never busted out the 6gb. We've come a long way if you think that only last year it would've cost you 75$ for a 200mb plan. I still can't wait for the day when 30$ will buy you an all unlimited plan (voice, data, sms, voicemail, etc).
I was extremely lucky to get my $15 -unlimited- data plan from Telus last year. No tethering, but whatever!
Now if only they had better phones...Storm...Touch Pro, so soon!
I say it's a matter of lucky timing. The fact that the iPhone is dwarfing even the entry-level freebies says a lot about market saturation and people on their second/third handset being wiling to trade up now, but not before. The name helps, but the crappy quality of the browser, basic text editing, etc were all similar in scale to the problems seen by Blackberries and Trios.
Big news for the US, but the RAZR's international sales only come to about half those of Nokia's best-sellers, so there's a way to go.
This news is actually not that interesting. It seems before the iPhone the ranks were pretty spread-out, with the top handselts only having less than 10% of the market each. The Razr only sold 1.3 million in Q2 2007 (http://edageek.com/2007/08/06/strategy-analytics-handset/) when it was presumably more popular than now. That means to be the most popular handset you only have to sell less than 2 million, and we know the iPhone sold the majority of its 6.9 million in US.
True that.. and unlike the (emo) RAZR and iPhone, Nokia makes phones that are actually worth it..
Nobody saw that one coming!
/sarcasm.
Seriously, I think many other commentators right here at engadget had seen this one coming when they predicted that the iphone will be the new RAZR.
I wonder if Apple will go the Moto way....
/joking :P
/You need more of these ;)
All comments should come with // attached.
I second the motion!
Actually the comments in question should be wrapped like the example below...
Wrapping comments with descriptors is not overkill
*note: apparently html-esque characters are automatically removed when posting a comment. Otherwise my previous comment would make some sense...hopefully
so does this mean the iPhone will die out soon
You haven't heard about the iPhone 3G? The regualr iPhone already died..
we could only be so lucky
Wow. So everyone's paying that $220 monthly plan then...at least I'm not alone.
" but a turn towards more complex, full-featured devices. "
That's funny, while the iPhone is more full-featured I actually found the RAZR more complex to use for it's time being.
Still, it should cost even less to be affordable to even more people.
Pfft--I thought you meant in overall sales, not quarterly sales. Anyway, given Motorola's financial troubles and Apple's marketing, this is really no surprise.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the sales comparison between RIM and Apple specifically refer to a certain quarter?
A real test would have been if ATT would have dropped the Bold when it was supposed to. Then we would have seen what is what.
Maciek: Seriously, you cannot possibly be such a tool. Wait. . .this is a tech site. . .you can be! Congrats.
I own one too...its the worst 'phone' I've used...great internet device though.
Does the job for me. I can make calls just fine.
Maybe you bought the iPod touch? That'd explain it.
I've owned mine for over a year now. It's definitely not the worst phone I've ever used, but it isn't the best. That honor belongs to the Motorola Startac. Still, as an overall package I love the iPhone and I do believe it is among the best out there, as an overall package. Still, there certainly are many worthy competitors. I think Apple's greatest accomplishment with the iPhone is to proliferate the idea that there can be an easy to use, feature rich smartphone for the masses and that only drives the competitors to build better and better devices for the wide market instead of concentrating on just the business market.
I'm confused here. Are they saying the number 2 model in the US for Q3 was a 2005 model?!
http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_v3i-1352.php
Yup - but remember that the RAZR is mostly given away now with a contract.
Suckered by glitz and glamor; the iphone sits on top of the mobile phone heap. No thanks. I actually think a phone should serve me rather than me serve the phone. I will keep my subservient Razor and get the calls I need when I need them to do my job. Hey Steve, you can keep your toy. To ATT and other carriers, I will keep my money.
No you won't. You're sending your money to AT&T to use your RAZR. Good job.
Well, that is unless you left out some info. Are you using pay-as-you-go?
Glitz and glamour? Are you serious? Excellent MP3 player, near PC-like web browsing, full email functionality with multiple accounts and Exchange integration, aGPS, 3G data connection...these are functions, not glitz nor glamour.
"Glitz and glamour? Are you serious? Excellent MP3 player, near PC-like web browsing, full email functionality with multiple accounts and Exchange integration, aGPS, 3G data connection...these are functions, not glitz nor glamour."
It's true the iPhone has all of that but you are assuming that everyone who bought the iPhone uses all those functions. I can just easily say that people who bought the iPhone don't even know of half the features of the iPhone. I can even go on further saying most who bought the iPhone are in their teens who could give a rat's ass about Exchange integration and e-mail. All those teens care about is if they could get on Facebook and go on YouTube (heck they probably don't even know that it's 3G capable just as long as they have access to the web, they wouldn't know the difference between EDGE and 3G!)
I know there are some buyers out there who actually bought the iPhone for e-mail and for all the other features the iPhone provides, but I guarantee you if you go ask an iPhone user off the street, 8/10 or even 9/10, first thing they will comment on is how it looks and the touchscreen...and oh yeah, I can check my Facebook and go on YouTube; they won't even talk about the aGPS capabilities or how they can setup their e-mail.
This is not a hate post towards the iPhone, it's great they outsold RIM in Q3, congratulations to Apple, but just like the iPod, consumers are willing to buy it simply because of the glamour and it definitely doesn't hurt that it also makes phone calls too.
Actually, Stevie J. said that 80% of the customers actually use 10 or more applications on the thing. That was before 2.0 with the App store and all. So yeah. They do use most of the phone.
"It's true the iPhone has all of that but you are assuming that everyone who bought the iPhone uses all those functions. I can just easily say that people who bought the iPhone don't even know of half the features of the iPhone. I can even go on further saying most who bought the iPhone are in their teens who could give a rat's ass about Exchange integration and e-mail. All those teens care about is if they could get on Facebook and go on YouTube (heck they probably don't even know that it's 3G capable just as long as they have access to the web, they wouldn't know the difference between EDGE and 3G!)"
Who is assuming here? Take one look at the comments in the App store and you'll see exactly what teens are doing...much, much more than using Facebook (which has more adults than myspace but I guess you're not aware of that).
Also, what makes you think that teens are the larger market for the iPhone? In fact, I've never seen a teen in line at an Apple store for the phone, and I didn't see them there on the morning of launch...the only thing I can say for certain is that you assume far more than I. It doesn't matter if every user uses every function, what matters is that the user has the functions he needs...and the iPhone seems to provide a lot to a lot of different types of user.
Remember You cant forward a txt message,Record video,MMS or Copy&paste.
JUST wait til you can :)
The G1 already has most of that and Apple doesn't seem to be interested in it which is a shame.
I cant believe this and then we are in "economic crisis"...
But then people can afford this yeah right....
@r3loaded:
I pay £35 per month for my iPhone, but then, I do get 600mins/500texts, versus your 300.
The iPhone's monthly fee isn't expensive (in the UK). It never was. I've had both of them. I even made a profit selling the old model on eBay. There are lots of myths about the iPhone, being spread by people who just hate the fact that Apple are being successful.
They're not doing it through dirty tricks; they're doing it as honestly as any corporation can. They make a product, and if you want it, you get it. Enough people want it, so they sell a lot of them. Stop the hating. Especially you WebKit-toting Android users - you guys have a lot to thank the iPhone and Apple for.
just put it on a credit card and youre fine bro!
Apple should be thankful to the KHTML team I think you mean.
I don't know agree that the vast majority of iPhone users know how to use their iPhone. I mean, a lot of people don't care, but the fact that its an Apple phone with a touch screen makes them want it. This has nothing to do with people's desires for more intelligent phones and everything to do with Apple's ability to make you want something.
/wishes he had an iphone.
//wishes he had $200 a month to pay for a data plan
$200 a month for a data plan? wtf, where do you live? My cell phone bill is like 98 bucks a month with unlimited texting, and the iphone package, after taxes.
WTF $200 a month?
This is exactly why I haven't bought an iPhone. 3 UK + free Nokia E61 (this was in june 2007) + 300mins/texts + unlimited data = £20/month. Which is about $32/month due to our massively devalued pound :(
It costs me $45/month, that's with 450 anytime minutes, free nights/wknds/mobile2mobile, and $5 for $200 texts.This is why I fail to understand why people think you need to make $200k/annual to have an iPhone.. it is not expensive by any means. $200 for a damn nice out of box basically zero customization needed phone isn't too much to ask. If you want a phone, get a phone. If you want a smart phone with email, you're going to shell out that kind of bank anywhere you go. If you want both a lot of minutes and unlimited data, look to put around $75 a month at least. But there really is no reason to trash the people that use it because you have skewed usage priorities.
Sure I'm getting a 25% discount on the plan through AT&T Premiere, but the big draw was that this only cost about $10 more/month than my old dumb-phone. And the iPhone plans cost THE SAME as the plans for an HTC Touch Pro. Blackberry plans cost a minimum of $10 more/month.
I'm in corporate finance, obviously a dedicated worker. :) I wanted a smart phone that would be well supported for the length of my 2 year contract, age gracefully and be useful on the go. If I wanted a Blackberry, AT&T reps were here last week with working Bolds for us to play with and drool over. My company would pick up the entire tab, but I'm not dealing with a locked down network. I wanted a Touch Pro for a while as well, but ultimately decided that out of the box and down the road.. I will get more use out of my iPhone. And it would cost me very little, after the initial purchase price.
I find the iPhone 3G passing the RAZR as a huge surprise. The device has been out for, what, 6 months? And the RAZR is how old? How often given away for free? How many can you get with a family plan?
I loved my RAZR. It was a great phone. But myself, along with a lot of others as this article shows, have moved on and need/want more from a phone.
So my previous comment about $200/month is a slight exaggeration. But to get an iPhone data plan in Canada costs $70 for 1gb and $85 for 2 gb (including system access fees etc). Thats not cheap for those of us who don't have our companies picking up the tab.
But if thats what you want, then yeah, its a pretty fun phone. Don't get me wrong - I'd like to have one, but its just prohibitively expensive in Canada at the moment, plus the cellular network is archaic. If I could just get signal everywhere I'd be happy.
I will be replacing my RAZR for an iPhone today.
I did that last fall actually.
sounds good...i'll wait patiently until the Iphone pays me $50 to be my new phone, as was the case with my last Razr (which, btw, was the wors POS phone i've ever had.)
I had the razr v1 and it was pretty bad but I heard that the subsequent versions were much improved and most people I know who have them like them just fine. They're nice and slim and they're pretty. Also, sound quality even on my crappy razr was very good when the call was fully connected and working properly. The problem I most had was dropping calls and the whole "can you hear me now?" problem. Half the time, I couldn't.
As a current owner of the iPhone, and a former owner of a RAZR, I can tell you that neither of the phones are anything to write home about. Although the iPhone was a definite upgrade from the razr, it is still lacking in a few crucial areas. Guess I'll just have to wait until my plan expires.
"This is a watershed moment for handset sales in the US, marking not only a shift away from the dominant market leader, but a turn towards more complex, full-featured devices."
I think it is quite evident at this stage that the iPhone wasn't bought en masse because of its multi-touch capabilities and extensive multi-media features; it was bought as it is the latest "cool" item to have, just like the iPod before it.
If any other device came out from another manufacturer that did as much good as it did bad, it would have probably been a flop.
Um, are you living in a cave? The iPod and iPhone dominate the market, because they do what we want, are easy to figure out (don't even come with a true instruction manual), look good, and feel durable (aka not cheap).
Apple gave the consumer what they wanted, and now they are reaping the benefits.
@trainwrecka
You're mostly right...though Apple products only do what you want if you want exactly what Mr. Jobs wants (think "bag-of-hurt"). But at the end of the day, marketing is what makes the ipod, and now iphone, truly huge. One of the best marketing stories of our lifetime.
So you're saying, the majority of people who went out and bought an iPhone were buying it because it was a great phone? Honestly, how naive are people?
Like the iPod, the iPhone is a must have device for name alone. The iPod was bested by a lot of manufacturers, yet people still flocked towards the iPod because it was deemed as being cool, hip, hot; and every other word to describe what is "in".
The iPhone, while offering a lot of functionality, is beyond the needs of the majority of its owners. The sheer amount of people buying iPhones, who don’t even know half the features of the phone they’re buying, is ridiculous. They just want one because everybody else wants one. How infantile and exasperating.
What Apple is great at is making people ‘believe’ they need their product when they really don’t. They are deemed as a “cool” company, that sell “cool” items, when realistically the people they are selling to don’t really have a clue, the majority of the time, to what ‘exactly’ it is they’re buying. I liken it to a mother buying a Ferrari F430 Spider to pick up her kids from school each day and do the weekly shopping. Excessive? You bet it is!
The iPod was not hip or cool when it first came out. It was an out-of-reach gadget, that most people could care less about. Eventually it caught hold, and put Apple in a very good position. People realized that technology could be very easy to use and look good. Now Mac sales are booming, and so are iPhone sales. Advertising doesn't do jack unless you have a good product to back it up. Word-of-mouth is how Apple continues to grow faster than the rest.
My brother, dad, and plenty of friends owned Blackberries, Qs, and Blackjacks, but none of them ever told me how great they were. Most of them only had them because of work. Now I see iPhones all around me, and people talk about them like they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Even my Mom has one. Sure she only uses about 5-10 apps from the store, the iPod, internet, camera, calendar, e-mail, text, and phone - BUT she only used the "phone" on her old phone, so the iPhone is better to her. Her old phone had a camera, calendar, text, and some sort of internet. She is not gadget-minded, but she loves the features on the iPhone, because they didn't require a manual to use.
@everyone mentioning celebrities: So when a celebrity endorses the iPhone it is a fad, but when a celebrity endorses a presidential candidate he/she is smart. Can't have it both ways.
@trainwrecka
When the first generation ipod came out, it was over $500 CAD in Canada, but Apple had an ad for it taking up the entire wall of a 15-story building along one of the largest highways heading into Toronto (Queen Elizabeth Way). That's marketing in a major way.
The iphone is a different story. It was a truly unique product when it was released. The ipod was a product launched into a market that already had a few similar products. Marketing and form were huge factors in the ipod getting ahead.
Engadget, thanks for finally attributing some of the iPhones success to its massive marketing efforts.
Not to say that iPhone didn't take users from BlackBerry and WindowMobile, but I'd say there were many more conversions form the hot fashion phone that came prior to the iPhone, the RAZR.
I was previously a WinMo user and am now an iPhone 3G owner...I'm highly technical (engineering consultant) and am willing to accept some of the shortcomings of the iPhone in exchange for a smoother interface and massive internal memory. Yes, of course marketing helped to sell the phone but I believe the biggest seller is the web browsing experience above any other. There really isn't a phone that can compete in that regard...
Look up HTC Touch HD.
Yes, of course the iPhone has some nice features(slick interface, browser, and internal memory), I even like the overall form factor, but as you said it does have its shortcomings(which have been mentioned enough already) and I am not willing to deal with them. Personnaly, there are enough dedicated hard keys and short cuts in WinMo to make it very easy to use, even with one hand. Being able to use a phone as capable as my Tilt with one hand is important, for web I use Opera, and for memory there's a SDHC card slot.
I think the biggest draws for the iPhone where its fashion phone status and the whole "ipod and phone in one thing". After all, both Rim and WinMo are still experiencing market share growth with the iPhone on the sceen. I don't think iPhone took symbian market share either (allthough they have lost marketshare overall) but instead converted the Razr crowed into smartphone users, therefore helping increase the smartphone market as a whole.
I'm sorry but that's just asinine. Please tell me who their apparent advertising blitz was aimed at because the only iPhone advertising I've seen sponsored by Apple is a few television spots. ALL of the "stories" and other content on the internet about the iPhone has been created by blogs or other enthusiasts, and has nothing to do with any concerted advertising campaign. Guess how much they've spent on getting the device into the numerous movies and TV shows lately? $0. Not a dime. That's the beauty of creating a truly great device, the people do your advertising for you.
Ten points to you for using the word asinine. Let’s see, what was the previous phone that had a huge ad campaign behind it?..oh yeah the RAZR. And come on, who reads tech blogs….tech geeks not the general population. Please don’t claim that the iPhone did not have a huge marketing blitz behind it, that would be asinine.(ten points for me!)
To utahnkid
This whole idea that Apple doesn't pay to put their product in shows is one of the biggest Internet lies in the world. As someone who was raised in an advertising family, and who has done advertising for a living, and has worked in production environments my entire life, let me set you straight. Any time you see ANY company's trademarked logo in ANY non-news show, it is because a contract was signed, and money changed hands. You can be sued for using another company's trademarked logo if you do not have their permission. In fact, their legal department HAS to sue you for using their trademark, to prove they are protecting their brand value. Despite all the people like you who claim on the Internet that people just use Apple products in their shows because they think they are cool, you will notice that in the credit of every one of those shows, there is language to the effect of "paid promotional consideration was provided by the following companies," and Apple is in that list right along with everyone else.
Apple has the largest marketing budget of any tech company outside of Japan, and spends far more every year on advertising than they do R&D. A large chink of that money goes to making sure their product in in every show, and always in a prime spot. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying, or doesn't know what they are talking about. Despite all the fanatical fanyboys who would like you to believe Apple is some sort of church, it is just another company, and it has to pay for its product placements just like everyone else.
Congratulations on failing to give even ONE example (because there are none). Good job.
utahnkid,
Start by reading the article above. And no I'm not going to scour the internet looking for ad numbers just to prove to you that you are delusional. Get help elsewhere.
FWIW, count me among those that went from a RAZR to an iPhone. Actually, I was all set to get a TMo Dash (last fall), then Apple dropped the price of the iPhone. I was planning on buying a new iPod at the time anyway, and it was cheaper to get the iPhone than the Dash and a new iPod, and in some ways the iPhone did more than the Dash.
I got my RAZR back in Dec. 2005, and it had been out for a while by then. I got it first and foremost because of the form factor (a big selling point for me on the iPhone later on as well), and because it was a color screen flip phone with a better camera than my previous SE T616. And honestly I thought, and still do, that the RAZR was just a damned cool looking phone. It was slimmer than any other flip phone (in the US) at the time and it had the then-unique etched keypad that looked like something out of TRON when it lit up. Smartphones at the time were still these huge bulky things that generally required belt holsters and were considerably more expensive. I switched from ATT (then Cingular) to TMo to get the RAZR.
Fast forward to winter 2007. My old RAZR was still plugging along just fine, but I wanted better email access through my phone, plus real internet access, but in a similarly thin form factor so can keep the phone in my pocket, not on my belt. Enter the iPhone. Its first big price drop put it within my budget, it's got a great looking UI, an enormous screen, it's just about as thin as my RAZR, and it does everything I was looking for (camera, Yahoo!mail integration, real web browser) plus more (Google maps, iPod, etc). So, I switched back to ATT from TMo to get the iPhone.
After seeing and using my iPhone, both my wife and my sister got one of their own (both got 3Gs). My MIL currently has a Blackberry that she hates, and she likes my iPhone as well, but honestly I don't think it's the best phone for her for how she uses her phone and what she uses it for, especially with the current crop of WinMo phones that are now available in the US.
utahnkid
You want examples. Ok, the show 24, Apple and Dell got in a huge bidding war, resulting in the highest product placement revenue of any non-sporting show ever made. On the other side of it, the Mythbusters use nothing but Apple computers, but you will notice that this season they have gaffer's tape over all the Apple logos, because Apple didn't feel the show fit their target demographic, so would not pay for promotional consideration. On the other side of it, you hardly ever see Apple computers in Project Runway, but Apple pays them for promotional consideration just to make sure that when they show the website, it is being shown in an Apple browser. There are just a few. Want some more? Just watch the credits of literally any of the shows you think are using Apple products just because they want to, and you will see right at the end of the credits that paid promotional consideration was paid for by Apple. They even do it for Disney shows, even though Steve Jobs is on the Board at Disney.
They "pay" for their placements by providing the product. Do some research into it, you can start here:
http://www.applematters.com/article/apples-product-placement/
Ah yes, and hearsay from a guy at a company named Propaganda Global Entertainment Marketing, who is paid to make Apple look good couldn't possibly contain any inaccurate information, could it?
I bet you believe everything a politician says too, as long as they agree with you. Sorry, all of these shows get a rather substantial portion of their production budget from product placement. They don't give away screen time because they think something is "cool." They are in it to make a buck, just like Apple.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the sales comparison between RIM and Apple specifically refer to a certain quarter?
A real test would have been if ATT would have dropped the Bold when it was supposed to. Then we would have seen what is what.
I dunno why everyone got a razr in the first place. That phone was a piece of shit. Stylish when it came out I guess but still a piece of shit.
The way I see it is that there are three main phone markets: The business crowd, with Blackberrys, Treos, and Palm devices, the teenage and young adult crowd, who love feature phones like Sidekick and RAZRs (the razr not necessarily being a feature phone many members of this demographic loved it) and the basic users, who want a phone that calls and txts (usually the free phone) a sub-group being the "my mom" group -- the type of people who go in and say, "I just want a phone that makes and receive calls."
The iPhone has mobile Safari, Contacts outside of the phone app, Email, and a calendar. I have also installed an alright To-Do app and a very good assignment app (iProcrastinate Mobile). On top of all that, it has exchange support. It doesn't have enough business support for all users, but more than enough for most.
The iPhone has an iPod, YouTube, and *tons* of games. I'd say the Feature-phoners are covered too.
What about the basic users, and the "my moms" out there? It has expandability, versatility, and an ability to fit itself into the lives of these users. It also has an easy to use, clean interface that make it a nicer option than RIMs and there expandability. It convinces you that you need it. If you argue with this argument, my mom got an iPhone after I told her she can delete spam mail throughout the day so she doesn't have to spend as much time at the end, and she can download a radio app and listen to NPR when she isn't in the car.
Despite the haters out there say, the iPhone is a very good device and is beginning to become the leader in the mobile market, as they have previously done with the iPod. I can't wait to see where it goes.
Wow! Really? How could that be possible?? According to the commenters on this web site, the iPhone is terrible!!!
/haha
/posted on my iPhone
The RAZR is worse... and three years old. :)
the fact that competitors haven't made a true rival for this phone yet that outclasses it in every way (2 years now!?!) is quite sad.. every phone you see that comes out matches or beats the iphone in only one category, but fails spectacularly in many other ways.
the G1 is as close as it gets, but Google is taking their own approach to how they want to handle the mobile movement they are doing... hopefully other manufacturers can come out with something.
Touch HD with Android would have been nice... but that's just a dream i suppose.
...now just imagine if the iPhone were thin like the RAZR... (glancing to the left of my screen, a fat iPhone lies there sleeping on the table)
Wow. You've obviously never seen another smartphone in your life before. Get back to me after you've seen how fat the N95, the G1, and, gosh, EVERY OTHER SMARTPHONE IN THE WORLD is.
Yes, if you say incredibly stupid things, you're going to get a response like this. The solution is to not say incredibly stupid things. Have a nice day.
I have an old RAZR laying around, and for laughs I compared my iPhone to some of my older phones, and the iPhone is really the same thickness as a "closed" RAZR, actually, I was surprised how thin it was compared to most of my older phones I once considered skinny.
iPhone haters gotta hate. Just like a monkey has to fling poo. It's in their nature.
......or a cow has to pass methane.
Good job! The iPhone did a great amount of sales and should be commended for pushing the mobile market, but when you put into context the numbers it puts things into perspective. For ONE quarter of the year they had what could possibly have been the biggest phone launch in history the sales totals slightly beat out a phone that has been on the market since around 2005, and against RIM not releasing a single new model. These are not overall market percentages, just sales for one quarter. The really important numbers will come afterwards when we will see if the sales continue, or if it will decrease as the first phone had. It would be hard to imagine the numbers had Apple relented and released on multiple carriers in the states.
Yeah, but I'm sure the iPhone is just a fad. I mean seriously, it doesn't have copy and paste, who would ever buy one? COPY AND PASTE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY HAVE IN A MOBILE PHONE. Everybody remember that, because it is obviously the single most defining factor in a phone. I mean why would you even buy a phone if it doesn't have copy and paste? I mean who needs email, web browsing, an iPod, and, I don't know, the ability to make phone calls? It doesn't have COPY AND PASTE so it's completely useless.
Well except that it's now the best selling phone in the US. I guess everybody who bought an iPhone is just to stupid to realize the only reason you buy a phone is for copy and paste.
Oh, and yeah, I'm sure marketing is the only reason it's the number one phone in the US now. It couldn't possibly be because it's a well designed and eminently usable mobile phone, right? Everybody knows people only buy the thing that's marketed the most. That's why everybody in the country switched to Vista after all of MS's ads for it.
Oh, wait.
Calm down Zak. Engadget people are just... bleh. Different I guess?
In both a bad and good way of course
(Fucking Rambus, good to see everyone hit them with the hammer)
Oh I know. it's a pre-emptive post. I would say Engadget people are "special", like they ride the short bus to school every day. They're so cute when they're young and stupid.
So Zak, is it your contention that the iPhone is the best designed phone since the RAZR? Are you saying that every model of BlackBerry was better designed than the original iPhone since they all sold better? Because that is where your line of thought leads. This is the cornerstone of hipocracy all you crazy Macheads can't see. When Apple has pathetic market share, like in the desktop market, then you have all sorts of crap to spew about how stupid people are, and how most people wouldn't know a good product if it bit them in the ass, and all sorts of tired analogies about luxury cars, and then when Apple has one good quarter, suddenly their good market share is undeniable proof that their product must be flawless, because so many people bought it, so it must be good.
Problem with that is, by that argument, Windows is obviously far superior to OSX, because look how much better it sells. Next quarter, when RIM has 3 new products out, and Apple is still selling the same iPhone, the BlackBerry will again clearly be better, just like it has been every quarter before this, because look how many people are buying it. Clearly half the phones Nokia makes are better than the iPhone, because they sell many times what the iPhone does. You are a rabid fan of a company that has had 1 blockbuster hit in 30 years of operation, trust me market share arguments are not your friend. Stick to your elitist arguments about how stupid the average consumer is, and forget about gloating about the quarters your team does well, it will suit you better in the long run. Trying to use market share on the one hand when it suits you, and then say it is meaningless when it doesn't, only shows you up as the irrational zealot we all know you are. BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and even Palm all have a larger total market share than the iPhone. Once you open up the argument to being about market share as proof of how good a device is, your team loses, no matter how good sales were for one quarter. You should just stay out of those waters.
Geez, what d'ja have for b'fast today?
I find this interesting since the iphone requires a $30 data plan and the Razr does not. You would think a phone without one would still be king.