iPhone Tops Nielson's List of Most Used Phones

Nielson is best known for tracking how many people watch TV shows, but it also covers many other products, including mobile phones. According to this company's figures, Apple's iPhone and various Blackberrys were the most frequently used models through most of 2009.

The iPhone stands at at the top with 4% of U.S. users in the first 9 months of this year. However, that doesn't mean Apple dominates phone use. A couple of companies have a higher percentage.

For example, the various models in RIM's BlackBerry 8300 series made up 3.7% of all phones in use in the first three quarters, and two other RIM models made it into the top ten, giving this company at least 6.3% of U.S. users.

Device Share Apple iPhone 4% RIM BlackBerry Curve 8300 Series 3.7% Motorola RAZR V3 series 2.3% LG enV2 2.1% LG Voyager 1.7% Samsung Rant 1.5% RIM BlackBerry Storm 1.4% LG Dare 1.3% LG Vu series 1.3% RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8100 series 1.2%

And while LG's most popular model -- the enV2 -- had a share of just 2.1%, this company has four models in the top ten, for a total share of at least 6.4%.

To assemble this list, Nielson tracked which phones were being used, and how much. This is not a ranking of phone sales.

How These Phones Are Being Used
In addition to tracking which phones are popular, Nielson also tracked what websites these mobile devices are going to most often.

Three of Google's services made the list, with Google Search page at number one, the Gmail website at number three, while Google Maps was seventh on the list.

Other webmail services did well too: Yahoo Mail is in second place in the top 10, Microsoft's HotMail came in sixth, and AOL's mail service is at number 9.

Also on on the list are Facebook (5th), ESPN (8th), and CNN News (9th).

In addition, Nielson tracked which video websites are popular with mobile users, with YouTube topping this list, to no one's surprise.

Other well-used video sources are, in order of appearance, Fox Interactive Media, Weather Channel, Comedy Central, CBS, ABC, MTV, NBC, ESPN, and E.

Source: Nielson