A tally of summer phone sales from Internet mobile phone and mobile phone plan retailer Wirefly found Google Android-powered phones led sales at the site for the summer of 2010.
The site, while offering phones through AT&T (along with all major carriers), does not offer Apple's popular iPhone, and advertises on its homepage a competitive promo against the value of an iPhone when compared with Android devices.
Six Android-powered devices made Wirefly's summer bestseller list, with the Droid-by Motorola and offered through Verizon Wireless-topping the chart. The smartphone features a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing DVD-quality video and a 3.7-inch display. The HTC Aria, the smallest Android-powered smartphone yet, came in second. That handset uses HTC's Sense User Interface and is offered by AT&T.
Coming in third place was the BlackBerry Bold 9700, also offered through AT&T. The Bold 9700 offers connectivity to AT&T's high-speed 3G network, WiFi support and integrated GPS with AT&T Navigator. The BlackBerry Curve 8530 (Verizon Wireless) was the other BlackBerry device on the list, coming in seventh. The Curve 8530 is the fastest, thinnest and lightest member of the Curve family and offers updated messaging and calendar applications. "BlackBerry users comprise a sizable portion of Wirefly's customer base, and these devices have always been among our best sellers," noted Andy Zeinfeld, CEO of Simplexity, which owns Wirefly.
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Fourth place was claimed by the Android-powered Motorola Cliq XT (T-Mobile), which boasts a full touch screen, slimmer form factor and improved 5-megapixel camera. The Cliq XT puts social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter front and center, integrating friends' status updates from across social networks into a single live feed, while offering one-touch access to YouTube, Google Maps, instant messaging and more.
The Samsung Intercept (Sprint), also powered by Android and offering a large touch-screen display, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, landed in fifth place, while the Motorola's Backflip through AT&T-another Android device that offers a networking-centric interface and flipping design allowing for self-portrait photos and mobile entertainment options-followed in sixth place.
"Android's recent ascent as the operating system of choice, combined with Wirefly's incredible pricing without the hassles of rebates, makes it no surprise that Android devices were among our best sellers this summer," Zeinfeld said. "In fact, had the entire country not experienced mass shortages of such highly touted Android smartphones as the HTC Evo 4G, Droid Incredible and Droid X, it's likely that more devices utilizing Google's open-source operating system would have made it on our list."
The LG Sentio (T-Mobile), which sports a 2.8-inch touch screen, a customizable widget-centric home screen and built-in social networking tools with access to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace over T-Mobile's 3G network, took eighth place on the list, while the company's Ally, another Android-powered smartphone offered through Verizon Wireless, came in at No. 10; it offers a 3.2-inch touch screen and sliding QWERTY keyboard.
Sandwiched between the LG handsets in ninth place was the Nokia Nuron 5230, offered through T-Mobile. Though it offers integrated access to personal e-mail and Corporate Microsoft Exchange mail, the device is not technically a smartphone. The Nuron also offers access to Nokia's Ovi Store for application downloads and free voice-guided, turn-by-turn GPS directions.
"There is still a sizable portion of the population who are simply not willing to assume the cost of the requisite data plan that comes with owning a smartphone," Zeinfeld said. "The LG Sentio and Nokia Nuron are two feature-rich touch-screen devices that offer an experience reminiscent of a smartphone at a non-smartphone price."
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