Fact: most phones last. Thing is, for us (and likely many of you), they last far longer than our clinically-diagnosed Gadget Attention Deficit Disorder would ever tolerate -- but for your dad, your sister, your college buddy with the hand-me-down ZEOS Pantera running Windows 95, or anyone weary of re-upping a two-year commitment, a handset can easily become a serious long-term investment. That helps explain why Motorola's venerable
RAZR series remains staggeringly high on Nielsen's latest US phone usage report -- third place, to be exact, at 2.3 percent of all subscribers behind the
iPhone 3G at 4 percent and RIM's
BlackBerry Curve line at 3.7 percent. Needless to say, that doesn't mean the ancient V3 line is still in third place for
sales -- it's more a testament to the staggeringly huge RAZR user base Moto managed to develop over the years, many of whom scored their phones at sub-$100 price points as an attractive, midrange value in the phone's twilight and have no intention of upgrading any time soon if they don't have to. Maybe the most interesting part of this is that two V3 variants are
also topping 2009's most-recycled list, so they're definitely getting taken out of circulation -- it just might take a few years yet before you don't know anyone that uses one, that's all.
posted December 22nd 2009 6:44PM
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi
Not to mention the original Edge iPhone, which also isn't included on that chart.
If you're going to combine every phone from every manufacturer, do it for all phones including the iPhone.
@HighestRanked "If the numbers for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G were combined they would totally dominate the list."
Actually, no. There have only been three iPhones, and we know two of them have less than 1.2% of market each (if they had that, they'd be in the top ten). Let's be generous and say they're 1.1% each. (Unlikely for the EDGE one, but hey.)
The iPhone total is then 4.0% + 1.1% + 1.1% = 6.2%.
The total for the top 10 Blackberries is 3.7% + 1.4% + 1.2% = 6.3%.
And that doesn't include the ones outside the top 10 (notably missing: Bold, 8800, Tour, Curve 8500, Pearl Flip...)
@jarek Self-correction:
Strictly speaking, in the best case scenario for Apple it is possible that the 8100 family has 1.24% of subscribers (rounded down to 1.2% in table), and then both EDGE and 3GS iPhones have 1.23% each. That would bring the iPhone total to 6.46%.
It seems rather likely that Bold + Tour + 8800 add up to more than 0.2% though, so Blackberries will still come out on top.
@jarek All in due time my friend. Berries or iPhones, it's all good. What's a concluded fact is WinMo is in the toilet and iPhone 4.0 is going to pull the chain this Summer.
Awesome that the Storm 9530 (my phone!) is on the list and the Curves, but no other BBs. Proves that a good phone is a good phone.
@mypetergoesinya Yeah mean apart from the 8100 series that are listed too, right?
and sadly out of all those phones, the iphone is the only one you prob wont have to replace..
@(Unverified)
whuh?
The handset market is gigantic. It's very unlikely any one company is going to have any huge dominance. RIM is as close as it gets right now but I don't see them being able to sustain it. There will probably end up being a bunch of players at 15-20% market share (in the SmartPhone market) and that's very good for consumers.
@(Unverified) some day we'll see the resurgence of the Motorola StarTAC
Phones might last (although they start to look beaten depending on the use) but batteries can only be recharged so many times and become worse from wear, so it still is slightly odd to see phones past a certain age.
Also, who's going to trust those wacky dutch people?
(They own nielsen last I heard)
The sad part is LG is raking in the fucking money with it's phones on Verizon. It's crazy. The enV and Voyager series are insanely successful. I'd be willing to be that LG makes a shit load more profit off just their Verizon agreements then Apple makes on the iPhone.
than* apple
Just mentioning it so you pick it up, I(/we) don't mind really.
@kenny goo The iPhone is the highest profit margin maker phone out in the market. But LG does sell like hot cakes on Verizon.
Btw, what is a hot cake? And why di the sell so well?
More importantly, where can I get one??
It's surprising they didn't name a phone hotcake yet, I mean there's a chocolate and loads of other weird and silly names.
My Razr keeps going strong, as I'm waiting for a great touchscreen smartphone not made by apple to land on AT&T... although the Nexus One might finally pull me away, to the land of Catherine Zeta Jones.
@Greenverde Well what if the iPhone went to T-Mobile?
Ballmer.
LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow..Razr's are still popular? Seriously? We should point them to Engadget Mobile or Boy Genius Report and help them out of the stone age...
Meanwhile those users can actually make phonecalls with their phone and talk to people.
@Wwhat I make phonecalls just fine actually.