According to NPD the Android operating system is now the second top smartphone Os with 28 percent, behind BlackBerry OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple's OS (21 percent). Prices of mobile phones are up slightly at $88 while smartphone prices averaged $151.
NPD notes that Verizon in order to compete with iPhone heavily promoted their smartphones with their Buy-One-Get-One free deals. There's a lot of competition going on, with the sale of Palm to HP and
Smartphone sales at AT&T make up nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).
Plan pricing will start getting into the mix, ""Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.
Verizon
Wireless' latest deal is offering buy-one-one get one free on their new super smartphone the well-reviewed often sold-out Droid Incredible.
The Droid Incredible can still be ordered online.
Pricing is $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate
with a new two-year customer agreement. Don't forget to use the
Instant Phone Rebate Only Available with Online Purchase
coupon-link to
avoid waiting for a rebate.
The continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in
slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, even though there was an
overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first
quarter. The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached
$88, which is a 5 percent increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices,
by comparison, averaged $151 in Q1 2010, which is a 3 percent decrease
over the previous year.