NPD: 'Dumbphones' still rule, average phone buyer spends $87

Smartphones may be growing in popularity, but the market is still completely owned by feature phones, market research company NPD Group said today. According to the company's Mobile Phone Track service 72% of all new handsets sold in the second quarter were so-called "dumbphones."

This does represent a 5% decline for the quarter, when smartphones managed to increase their share by more than 47% (they now represent 28% of overall consumer phone sales). But there's still a long way to go before smartphones can lay claim to even half of the mobile phone market.

The increased interest in smartphones has driven up the average selling price of all mobile phones by 4% to $87. NPD found that the most popular devices sold were the LG enV2 ($49.99-Verizon) and Samsung Rant ($49.99-Sprint) for non-smartphones and the iPhone 3G ($99.99 - AT&T) and Blackberry Curve ($49.99 - all Carriers) for smartphones.

In terms of standard features, 20% of all phones were Wi-Fi enabled, 26% had a touchscreen, and 35% had physical keyboards. Wi-Fi capability, NPD says, is three times more common in handsets this year than the year before. Indeed, companies such as Meraki Networks are showing that Wi-Fi hotspot usage has actually increased significantly because of the proliferation of phones with 802.11 wireless built in.