Top-selling smartphones in the U.S. in the third quarter

The following is a list of the top-selling smartphone models in the United States in the third quarter of this year, according to research and consulting firm IDC.

This list counts vendor sales to carriers and channels (sell-in) rather than sales to end users (sell-through). Further, these numbers are based on preliminary data; IDC has not yet finalized its numbers.

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Manufacturers and carriers do not disclose sales information for specific handset models. Therefore, IDC derives sales information from a variety of sources, including interviews with vendors, operators, component and software suppliers and resellers, as well as press releases, marketing and technical literature, white papers, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, quarterly conference calls, reports published in trade and business journals, end-user surveys and other sources. The firm also conducts cross-checks with ODMs and supply chain players.

Finally, for those sticklers in the readership, IDC defines smartphones--"converged mobile devices" in IDC parlance--as those devices that "are either voice or data centric and are capable of synchronizing personal information and/or email with server, desktop or laptop computers. Positioned to solve the ‘multiple device question' and replace the need to carry a mobile phone and a pen-based handheld or a mobile phone and a pager, for example, these devices may also include an expanding list of features such as multimedia or email. These devices must match wireless telephony capability to evolved operating systems or application environments such as the BlackBerry OS, Palm OS, Mac OS X, Microsoft operating systems, Linux, and the Symbian platform. These devices must include the ability to download data to local storage, run applications, and store user data beyond their required PIM capabilities. Converged handheld devices must also offer the full extent of their application processing capability to the user, regardless of network availability."

And click here for second quarter numbers.