While RIM’s next-generation handsets such as the Bold, Storm and Curve 8900 are already flooding the marketplace — and a new wave including the Tour and Curve 8520 are on the horizon — it looks like RIM’s bread and butter is still the trusty old Curve 83xx series. According to recent analysis by The NPD Group, the BlackBerry Curve was America’s best selling smartphone in Q1 of 2009. It steals the title from the iPhone of course, as sales slow from its incredible pace last year. The NPD Group cites aggressive promotions such as Verizon’s popular BOGO offers as the catalyst behind the surge. Here are the top five smartphones in America this past quarter:
- RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
- Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
- RIM BlackBerry Storm
- RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
- T-Mobile G1
RIM, holding three of the top five slots, shipped an astounding 7.8 million BlackBerry handsets in its last reported quarter (Dec 08 – Feb 09) so this hardly comes as a surprise. With several new BlackBerry models on the horizon and at least one new iPhone model due out this Summer, things are definitely starting to heat up in the US smartphone space.
