Mobile Phone prices continue to fall

According to market researcher The NPD Group, buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers and other price reductions on smartphones led to a 3% decline in average prices in the Q3/2009.

GeneralThe overall average purchase price for mobile phones in the U.S. fell to $85, which is down from $88 in Q3 2008. Smartphone unit share held steady against feature phones; 28% of handset sales were smartphones last quarter.

According to market researcher's Mobile Phone Track, smartphone price reductions by carriers helped push the Blackberry Curve, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G to the top of the sales rankings for mobile phones. LG dominated sales of feature phones (i.e., phones sold without an operating system) with LG enV3 and LG enV Touch rounding out the top five sellers. Mobile phone accessories sales reached $2.3 billion in Q3 2009, which is an increase of 12% over the prior quarter.

As The NPD Group noted last year, sales of pre-paid handsets represented 17% of the market in the third quarter, increasing to 20% the following quarter. "We expect to see even greater gains for pre-paid phones during the holidays, as they are quite easy to give as gifts, since they don’t require a signed contract with a particular carrier," Rubin said.