US smartphone sales up 9% thanks to huge prepaid growth

[still1]

I am going prepaid once my contract ends...

It?s impressive that despite an adverse economy, smartphone sales in the US are growing at a rate of 9 percent year over year, but even more interesting is where that growth is coming from. NPD reports that while sales of traditional postpaid devices were flat in Q2 of 2012, prepaid sales nearly doubled ? up 91 percent over the same period last year. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that by NPD?s numbers, prepaid phones grew from 10 percent of all smartphone sales a year ago, to over 17 percent in the last quarter.

So what?s driving the change? As pointed out by GigaOm, one factor is the improved quality of Android devices available through prepaid providers ? like HTC?s Evo V, whichcan be purchased through Virgin Mobile for $299. With the US postpaid market inching toward a growth ceiling, the question remains how long cheaper prepaid plans can keep new customers coming in.

http://www.theverge....postpaid-growth

[Roger H. Veteran]

Prepaid here now for about 2yrs. Last contract phone was BB Bold 9000 on AT&T paying $129 a month or so. Unlocked that bad boy and mostly everything working for $60/month on a prepaid carrier using the same AT&T network. I switched to CDMA for a bit for cheaper rates but said screw it and switched back to GSM carriers and have been porting my number and buying new phones whenever I wanted without so much of a peep from carriers :) So now i save TONS of money, enough to buy 2 new smartphones a year (or save it) vs being stuck in a contract spending tons of cash and stuck with an "old" phone.

Now i pay $50/month using SGS2 CM10 (Jelly Bean) and get unlimited everything (basically). I got nothing to worry about now :)

[I am Reid]

Prepaid here now for about 2yrs. Last contract phone was BB Bold 9000 on AT&T paying $129 a month or so. Unlocked that bad boy and mostly everything working for $60/month on a prepaid carrier using the same AT&T network. I switched to CDMA for a bit for cheaper rates but said screw it and switched back to GSM carriers and have been porting my number and buying new phones whenever I wanted without so much of a peep from carriers :) So now i save TONS of money, enough to buy 2 new smartphones a year (or save it) vs being stuck in a contract spending tons of cash and stuck with an "old" phone.

Now i pay $50/month using SGS2 CM10 (Jelly Bean) and get unlimited everything (basically). I got nothing to worry about now :)

I renewed my contract with Verizon when I started to hear all these rumors of caps and such. I did it in December and locked my current unlimited data, with my choice of minutes and text for a grand total of $64 a month(discount through work) till almost 2014, so I have a really good deal on probably the best network your going to find. I thought about switching to prepaid, but I cant change my number, and was under the impression you cant port your number with prepaid, or can you?

[Roger H. Veteran]

Sure you can, i switched from AT&T to Page Plus to Simple Mobile to Verizon to Simple Mobile to H2O Wireless. LOL Probably all within 3 months.