U.S. handset sales surge year-on-year, especially smart ones

The third quarter saw consumer handset sales in the United States valued at $3.2 billion, a 47% jump over the year-ago quarter, according to new data from NPD Group. Those numbers are based on 38 million units sold to consumers.
Smartphones catapulted to 11% of all sales in the third quarter, up from 4% in the year-ago quarter.
Motorola Inc. retained its position as the top U.S. vendor by unit volume sold to consumers, claiming 31% of the market. LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. were neck-and-neck, with 17% and 16%, respectively, of the volumes sold in the third quarter.
Nokia Corp. managed to ship 11% of all handsets in the U.S. in third quarter and Sanyo Corp. sold 4%. All other vendors combined accounted for the remaining 21%.
Bluetooth and music playback are two features becoming rapidly commonplace among feature phones. Of all feature phones, 72% sold include Bluetooth, up 44% year-on-year. Half of all phones sold include music playback, a 100% jump over the year-ago quarter.
While carrier retail stores still dominate the handset sales channel, prepaid customers are likely to purchase their handsets from a mass-market retailer.
NPD’s data comes from 150,000 monthly, online consumer surveys, which are demographically representative of the U.S. population as a whole.