Half of All US Mobile Phones Are 3G Enabled

The Strategy Analytics ProductTRAX program revealed the top selling mobile phones on the US market. 55 percent of all devices are 3G-enabled ones, which shows a great development for this handset market as well.

Apple is surely not very happy to see that the feature it failed to pack in its iPhone upon its US release is now catching up grounds at such a great extent. This should give it a great push for bringing out its own 3G version of the handset as soon as possible, with no delays on the announced date of May 2008.

"3G devices accounted for 55 percent of these TOP SELLING device volumes. That share will continue to grow during Q4", states Chris Ambrosio, a Director in the Wireless Practice at Strategy Analytics. Moreover, "While the iPhone gets the headlines, the "Sync" from Samsung and the "Chocolate" from LG quietly stole the show in the category of iconic, 3G feature phones. Samsung, in particular, is well-positioned to dominate 3G sales during the critical Q4 holiday season", he also commented.

At this rate, the iPhone might see itself "killed" by features it does not pack, but highly similar competitors do. This includes GPS and especially 3G, although Apple promised that a version of the phone also packing this feature will surely come next year.

The Strategy Analytics ProductTRAX program showed Motorola RAZR V3 and its V3m version as being the best selling mobile phones across the US. On the third place stands LG VX8300, while Apple's iPhone comes only as fourth. Things might change by the end of the year, as the holiday season greatly encourages shopping.

The average retail price of 3Genabled handsets was almost 20 percent higher than the market average. Another interesting fact revealed by the program is that, despite selling four of the top ten models in this year's third quarter, Motorola reached an ASP (average selling price) of only USD 80, which is 40 percent lower than the group average.