iPhone 4 And iPhone 3GS Are Still The Best-Selling US Smartphones

Despite the talk about Android being available on more handsets, Apple’s short list of iPhones continues to rock the charts. Although fans are always yearning for the next bigthing, nothing illustrates how deep Apple’s bench is than recent figures showing the iPhone 4 and 3GS remain the top-selling smartphones in the United States.

The iPhone 4 placed Number 1, while the iPhone 3GS ranked No. 2 in third quarter domestic sales, according to retail analyst firm NPD. HTC’s EVO 4G, at No. 4, was the highest selling Android smartphone in the U.S. for the three month period. Motorola’s Droid 3 was No. 4 and Samsung’s Intensity II rounded out fifth place.

If these rankings seem familiar, your eyes aren’t playing tricks. In August, NPD released the exact same rankings, again placing the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS at the top of the list. The iPhone 4 was released more than a year ago in June 2010, while the iPhone 3GS was first unveiled way back in June 2009. That means a smartphone that is coming up on two and a half years old is still outselling Android’s best and brightest.

The two iPhones became Apple’s entry-level devices after the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant announced its latest smartphone, the iPhone 4S in October. The 8GB iPhone 4 is being sold for $99 (with contract) by three U.S. carriers, while the 8GB iPhone 3GS is offered free (with contract) by AT&T.

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.