The 3G version of Apple’s iPhone was the single top-selling mobile device in 2009, according to a new study by Nielsenwire. Since Apple only makes one smartphone, the top ranking is impressive. But the company still falls behind Research In Motion and LG in overall market share.


Three RIM devices made the top 10, amounting to 6.3 percent of all phone usage from January through October, while four LG devices amounted to 6.4 percent of the market.


At number two on Nielsen’s list, the 8300 BlackBerry series, which includes the Curve and four other models, were the most popular RIM devices. The VX9100 topped LG’s inventory. Other companies that made the list are Motorola, whose RAZR V3 series snagged third place, and Samsung, whose Rant series came in sixth.


In news that could boost both Apple and RIM sales, broadband phone company Vonage announced this week the release of VoIP applications that will allow low-cost long-distance calls for users of both platforms. An unlimited calling plan costs $24.99 a month, with a $10-a-month discount for existing Vonage customers.



Price Trumps Network Quality



For an insight into the iPhone’s growth, Roger Entner, Nielsen vice president for telecom research, recently studied responses from the firm’s monthly consumer surveys from 2006, before the iPhone was introduced, to the first quarter of 2009. He found that loyalty to a particular phone as one of the top reasons for selection did not substantially change during that time.


“Even with the prominence of the iPhone, surprisingly the availability of a specific phone stayed flat as the seventh most important factor,” Entner wrote on the company’s web site. Price, however, remained number one, and the availability of a family plan moved from number five to the third spot, even surpassing network quality, which had been the number-two reason.


Entner surmised that because family plans often include free calls to people on the same network, such plans mean a greater opportunity for the two wireless carriers with the largest number of users, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. AT&T is the iPhone’s exclusive carrier in the U.S., while LG phones are offered by Verizon.


“While handsets represent popular topics of conversation, economic factors are actually the major driver in the purchasing process,” Entner wrote.


While Apple, which is getting ready to release its fourth-generation iPhone, has experimented with scaled-down versions of the iPhone, it remains to be seen if the company will shift from single-model production in the near future.


“Mature platforms fragment over time as needed,” said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpet. “Until now there’s been no need for multiple models as there was with the iPod line.”


Top Mobile Sites


Nielsen also tracked the top web sites accessed by mobile users and found Google Search was number one, followed by Yahoo Mail and Gmail. 


When they weren’t checking their mail, mobile users were checking the weather, making The Weather Channel’s site number four, followed by Facebook.


At the bottom, e-mail service from Aol, which has been slipping in usage with the rapid demise of dial-up, came in next to last on the list, edging out only CNN.com.


In another interesting trend, Nielsen found one in five U.S. households have dropped their landlines and are using cellular phones only, a 16 percent increase over last year, according to data from the second quarter of 2009.