Study: one in three iPhone buyers switched to AT&T from other carriers
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 6, 2008 at 10:39am
According to a new report from The NPD Group, which does research for the wireless industry, 30 percent of U.S. consumers who purchased Apple’s iPhone 3G from June through August switched from other mobile carriers to join AT&T, the exclusive mobile carrier for the iPhone in the U.S.
By way of comparison just 23 percent of consumers, on average, switched carriers between June and August 2008. Nearly half (47 percent) of new AT&T iPhone customers that switched carriers switched from Verizon Wireless, another 24 percent switched from T-Mobile, and 19 percent switched from Sprint.
“The launch of the lower-priced iPhone 3G was a boon to overall consumer smartphone sales,” according to Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G has proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network.”
According to NPD, before the launch of the iPhone 3G, iPhone sales represented 11 percent of the consumer market for smartphones (January through May 2008); however, after the launch of iPhone 3G, Apple commanded 17 percent of the smartphone market (January through August 2008).
The average price of a smartphone sold between June and August 2008 was US$174, down 26 percent from $236 during the same period last year. During June through August 2008, the top four best-selling smartphones based on unit-sales to consumers were as follows: the iPhone 3G, the RIM Blackberry Curve, the RIM Blackberry Pearl and the Palm Centro.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
