New mobile phone sales figures from market research firm The NPD Group show that U.S. mobile phone sales were up 14 percent in the second quarter of 2007 compared the the same quarter of 2006, with sales of over $2.4 billion. Although that’s a decline of 17 percent compared to sales during the first quarter of the year, the U.S. mobile phone industry traditionally sees a sales slump during the second quarter, so a 14 percent year-on-year improvement isn’t too shabby.
However, other numbers in the NPD data shed some light on American’s phone-buying preferences. While U.S. buyers are opting for new capabilities and high-end phone features (like Internet browsing and 2 megapixel cameras) there are plenty of Americans who like to keep their phones simple, cheap, or free. Among phones purchased on the second quarter of 2007, 28 percent were free to the consumer, often through rebates and other promotions, and another 28 percent cost buyers less than $50; totaled up, that means more than half (56 percent) the phones sold in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2007 were either free or low cost, and (thus) unlikely to offer Internet data features, high-resolution cameras, or other leading edge features. NPD found that only 11 percent of phones sold in the second quarter cost more than $150, and only 4 percent cost buyers more than $250.
NPD figures do show a growing market penetration of new mobile phone features, however: almost 70 percent of phones sold in the second quarter had some sort of Bluetooth capability, which is an increase of 9 percent compared to sales in the first quarter of the year. NPD also found that 45 percent of phones sold had music playback capability (a number suspiciously almost the inverse of the number of free or sub-$50 phones sold in the quarter), and 11 percent of phones sold were considered smartphones. Some 5 percent of new mobile phones offered a camera with a resolution of two or more megapixels.
