Featurephones make up 72% of new U.S. cellphone sales according to NPD

When it comes to grabbing the attention of consumers, nothing beats a full featured smartphone.When you think of all of the cellular handsets that are making the news on a regular basis, you think immediately of devices like the iPhone, Touch Pro2, Palm Pre, myTouch3G, BlackBerry Storm and the Nokia N97. All of these models are smartphones and these devices represent the only growing niche in a cell phone market that just set a record for lower sales in the first quarter of this year. That's is why it seems odd to hear that according to research firm NPD, featurephones (or dumbphones, as it were) made up 72% of new U.S. cellphone sales. During the second quarter, smartphone sales jumped 47% year-over-year to reach the 28% of market share that they control. Feature phones dropped 5% and total handset sales rose 14% from April through June.

Many featurephones end up in the hands of those who really don't care what model phone they have, as long as it takes and receives calls. You know whom I mean, the kind of guy who shrugs his shoulder at your Touch Pro2 and says, "A phone is just a phone." Being a featurephone doesn't mean that the device has no exciting specs. Models like the LG Dare or the enV Touch are so full of features that they are often misclassified by the media and sales reps as smartphones.

According to NPD, the top selling featurephones in the period were the LG enV2 and the Samsung Rant. The iPhone and the BlackBerry Curve were the best selling smartphones. Average price of a new handset? $87, up 4% from last year. 20% of new handsets now come with Wi-Fi (hear that, Verizon?). 26% of new phones are touchscreen devices while 35% have physical QWERTY keyboards.

source: NPD via EngadgetMobile