iPhone is hot, picking off rival carriers' customers and smartphones

Although the stock market took a beating today, Apple found itself with a slight gain.  Why?  Among other things, NPD came out with extremely good news about the iPhone and Mac Observer forum members have determined that the iPhone 3G may be closing in on 10 million units produced since July.

NPD's survey concluded that the iPhone was the nation's second-biggest-selling phone in the US between June and August 2008, coming in right behind the Motorola RAZR 3, a much cheaper and less sophisticated model.  Among Smartphones, it topped the list, edging out two Blackberry models.

The top four best-selling smartphones (based on unit sales) between June and August 2008 were:

1. Apple iPhone 3G
2. RIM Blackberry Curve
3. RIM Blackberry Pearl
4. Palm Centro

The good news for Apple doesn't stop there.  NPD says that 30 percent of iPhone 3G customers came from other providers, compared to an average of 23 percent of consumers who switched wireless service in the same period. Ex-Verizon customers led the migration to the iPhone 3G, with 47 percent of those switchers; T-Mobile followed at 24 percent and Sprint defectors totaled 19 percent.

“The launch of the lower-priced iPhone 3G was a boon to overall consumer smartphone sales,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis. “While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G has proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network.”

In other good news for the iPhone, MacObserver forum members have been compiling IMEI numbers from 3G iPhones around the world.  They have concluded that Apple has sold over 9 million iPhones and may indeed hit 10 million by October 14th and possibly 20 million by MacWorld.  That would be quite the acomplishment but not a huge surprise.  Apple sold a million 3G iPhones during the first weekend of the launch.  By contrast it took 47 days to sell the 1st million EDGE iPhones.  

The data can be found in a Google spreadsheet here.

The high number of iPhone sales is not only important in this economy as a barometer of Apple sales, it is also a good indicator that iPhone apps developers will have a steadily growing market for their applications.

Not a bad day for the iPhone or Apple in general.  AAPL fans need more good news.