According to the NPD Group, a marketing research firm, reports that the Motorola RAZR is no longer the top-selling U.S. consumer mobile phone. After ruling the top of the charts for the past 12 quarters, the RAZR was dethroned by the Apple iPhone 3G in Q3 2008.
The top five list also includes the RIM BlackBerry Curve in third, followed by the LG Rumor and LG EnV2.
NPD also found that there is a growing preference for phones optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features. The fastest growing phone segment is devices with a QWERTY keyboard, now accounting for 30 percent of all phones sold (and up from 11 percent a year ago). Other popular features are cameras, Bluetooth (now found on 83 percent of phones purchased) and music playback (68 percent).
Not all the news is good though: NPD reports that consumer handset sales fell to 32 million units, a 15 percent drop compared to the same quarter a year ago.