Raw Data Report: Cell Phones

Each day, Wall Street is flooded with stock research offering a multitude of conflicting investment opinions. As such, TickerMine is not in the business of providing more opinions. We believe that accurate raw data points can be used to gain insight in to the stock selection and valuation process.

LG Rumor Overtakes RAZR As Best-seller For Sprint

A March survey of Sprint (S) stores shows that since our February survey, the LG Rumor has overtaken the Motorola (MOT) RAZR as the best-selling phone model, with 20% of respondents citing the Rumor as their top seller.

The Motorola brand led sales with 36% of stores citing it as most popular, but its sales were primarily split between two models, the RAZR (16%) and the Q (12%). Blackberry (RIMM) is still by far the best brand for e-mail, garnering 44% of mentions, up from 39% in February. The most-cited Blackberry brand is the Pearl. For music, the clear favorite was the LG Muziq, with 36% of mentions, up from 29% in February.

Samsung Top Selling Brand at Verizon in March, RIMM Dominates in E-Mail Category

In our most recent survey of cell phones sale at Verizon Wireless locations Samsung was seen as the top selling brand by 35% of respondents. Samsung scored well with the Juke handset, in addition to the SCH-u340. LG was a close second with 30% of respondents seeing LG phones as the top seller. The LG Chocolate and the Voyager were seen as standout models.

Motorola, led by the RAZR model, was seen as the top selling brand by 26% of respondents. The Research In Motion Blackberry family of e-mail devices was seen as the best e-mail device by 39% of respondents. The Palm (PALM) Treo was seen as best by 26% of respondents, up significantly from last month when no respondents viewed the Treo as a top e-mail device.

Palm appears to have taken share from LG which fell to 9% in the March survey from 30% in February in the e-mail category. LG was seen as the best brand in the music phone category led by the LG Chocolate which was seen as the best music phone by 39% of respondents. The Samsung Juke was recommended by 30% of respondents as the best music phone. Motorola fell substantially in March with 17% of Verizon (VZ) Wireless store representatives viewing their phones as tops in the music category. Motorola devices were seen as best for music by 43% of respondents in the February survey.

Motorola RAZR Phones Now the Best Selling at T-Mobile Stores, New TM Survey Says.

Tickermine surveyed a slew of T-Mobile stores this month to discover which phones sold best overall, which models produced best email services and then music services. Our researchers polled 39 stores nationwide and found interesting results. The Motorola RAZR phone came up trumps as the best-selling phone overall with 10 responses or 31%. Samsung phones generated eight responses or 25% followed by the Nokia (NOK) and then the Blackberry phones, each noted by five respondents or 17%. The Sidekick XL produced two responses or 6% while the LG Electronics phones were the least best selling with one response or 3%. The best email device was the Blackberry with 21 responses or 66%. (Of the 21, 10 respondents cited the Blackberry Pearl specifically.)

The Sidekick XL was the favorite for four respondents or 13%. The T-Mobile Shadow was cited twice in the survey or 6% along with the Nokia 2610. The T-Mobile Wing was cited once as best for email or 3%. Samsung phones were cited as the best music devices by 16 respondents or 50% (15 of which cited the Samsung Beat.) Five respondents or 16% cited the Nokia 5300, three pollsters or 9% favored the Sidekick XL followed by the Sony Ericcson at 6% or two respondents and finally the iPhone (AAPL) with one respondent or 3%

Samsung Top Cellphone Manufacturer., Blackberry & iPhone Best for E-mail, Music

Tickermine recently conducted an international survey of 34 Alltel stores. Samsung was the best-selling brand in nearly 24% of the locations, with results evenly split between the Hue and r200 models. LG, Motorola and Nokia were each named as best-selling brand by 18% of respondents. Motorola's Razr and LG's AX8600 were the best-selling models for their respective makers, while Nokia sold a mixed bag of models. 12% of those polled mentioned Blackberry as their best-selling model, while approximately 9% named the iPhone.

Clearer favorites emerged when respondents were asked about devices used for specific functions. Nearly 56% of respondents cited Blackberry as the best device for e-mail, with the Blackberry Pearl model capturing 29% of the total responses. The iPhone was next, named as the best e-mail device by approximately 18% of those polled. The Alltel Hue, Moto Q and LG Scoop each garnered 6% of the mentions, while Nokia, the T-Mobile Sidekick, and the BlackJack II each garnered just 3%.

The iPhone was the single model most often cited as the best music device, with nearly 27% of the mentions. Motorola was the most-cited brand, however, with the MOTORKR cited by nearly 15% and the MOTORZR and MOTOKRZR each cited by 9% of respondents, for a total of 33% of the total mentions. Other brands named include Samsung's Alltel Hue (9%), Samsung Muse (6%), LG (9%) and Nokia (6%).

iPhone Dominance Shrinks at AT&T Wireless

Tickermine surveyed AT&T (T) Wireless store representatives in March and learned that the Apple iPhone was seen as the best seller by 35% of respondents. The iPhone's lead as overall best selling phone decreased from 56% in our January survey. 35% of respondents also viewed the Motorola RAZR (and its variants) as the top selling phone in their stores.

The iPhone was seen as the top e-mail device by 42% in March, down from 52% in January followed by Research In Motion's Blackberry family of devices, which were seen as the top e-mail device by 38% of respondents (up from 32% in our previous survey). The iPhone was seen as the top music device by 58% of respondents. The iPhone's rating as the top music phone device fell substantially in the March survey compared to January when 72% of respondents saw it as the top music phone. No other phone was seen as a strong music option by more than 10% of respondents.

Comments

[Jon T]

Weird or what?

[samij]

it's kind of difficult to see what purpose a cell phone report based on questions us operator "locations" answered might serve. certainly nothing investing related.

maybe you could explain the purpose of such a report next time?

[DJOlde]

Razr best selling phone at Sprint in Feb? THis is simply not true. THat phone has been nothing but a blip on the charts since last year. Then the artille goes on to say that Moto is the best selling Brand. Where did this data come from? Sombody is hitting the crack pipe very hard.

[Schmidtty]

Seriously. This information is not organized in any useful way. This data is better suited to a spreadsheet with month over month changes. Also, the information is useless because the reader has no idea where specifically any of the polls took place, i.e. northeastern US or Euro area? Domestic vs. international doesn't provide enough info. Developed market vs. emerging market? Come on, guys.

[User 171852]

The data can be seen in detail (in a spreadsheet) and compared to previous month's survey data at tickermine.com. You need to be a DiamondMiner subscriber to see the data.

The purpose of these is to report actual field data since most of the articles /theories /posts in the financial world are opinions based on little to no actual field data.

The Sprint report that Motorola was the best selling phone is February is 100% accurate according to the Sprint reps that TickerMine called and spoke with. The reason of course is that the RAZR is free, people are saving money and taking free phones over phones that cost money. Real data can give you a real edge. Try it. tickermine.com.

Sincerely,
Casey Ryan
CEO
TickerMine
[e-mail]