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Filed under: Culture , Handsets , Palm , RIM , Sony Ericsson , Studies , Misc , Apple We suppose the uptick in smartphone demand could be to blame , depending on your perspective, but regardless of semantics, a new study put out by J.D. Power and Associates has found that surging interest in high-end handsets is causing the average purchase price of mobiles to shoot upward. Compared to 2007, consumers are currently paying around $9 more on average per phone. The average price rose to $101, up from $92 just six months prior, and it also marks the highest figure found since the study's inception in 2003. Analysts are pegging recent demand in RIM , Palm (saywha?) and Apple devices as the primary culprit, and it's noted that the average price paid for a smartphone these days is $208. Not surprisingly, these folks also found that the percentage of customers who receive free phones on contract has sank from 36% to 33% in the past six months. If you're the number loving type, be sure and hit the read link for lots, lots more where this came from. [Via RCRWirelessNews ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Though not all of our Asian brethren could be included in the first round of Asian carriers getting official iPhone lovin’ in the following months, there are still, of course, other solutions they can look to with regards to their mobile telephony. That’s what SK Telecom, Korea’s largest telecom service provider, is trying to keep [...]

Sealed battery ? Closed operating system? No physical keyboard? Slow data / No 3G? Say what? Despite all the iPhone’s negative attributes (and in spite of all the iPhone’s detractors), Apple has just outsold all other smartphone in the month of July. According to a study from iSuppli, the Apple iPhone’s first full month of sales proved to scoop up an incredible 1.8% of US mobile handset sales - dwarfing sales of smartphones from Palm, RIM, Sony Ericsson, and even Nokia. For a mobile phone that doesn’t even have the latest technology (GPS or 3G) we’re seeing rampant sales of the first handset offering from Apple. Says iSuppli, “While iSuppli has not collected historical information on this topic, it’s likely that the speed of the iPhone’s rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market.” iSuppli’s data was gathered through an online survey of 2 million participants and represents a mostly male, under 35, college graduate demographic. And, a quarter (1/4) of iPhone buyers actually switched from another carrier to AT&T in order to get a chance to buy the iPhone - that’s like moving from the Valley to Santa Monica, CA. so you could be in the more desirable beach neighborhood. It seems that most smartphone buyers in the US are not concerned with any of the iPhone’s downsides - concentrating on the revolutionary interface and “coolness” factor. Surely there are people that wouldn’t touch the iPhone with a 10-ft. pole, but that group seems to now be the minority - a dwindling minority, if iSuppli’s forecast of 4.5 million iPhone sales pans out. [Via: Reuters ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Neonode N2 getting prepped for launch!Apple: 1 million iPhone sold in next three monthsApple shows up twitchy investors, announces sales of 270,000 iPhones - stock reboundsCan Apple Ship 10 million iPhones By 2009?Sony Ericsson joins...