Monday, NPD Group, a company that offers marketing research services such as industry tracking and data analysis, released a report revealing that 30% of the smartphones’ customer base had switched carriers within the summer months, due to the launch of Apple’s iPhone 3G.  Since the sole carrier for Apple Incorporated’s new gadget is currently AT&T, data showed that from June to August, many have bailed on their until-then carriers in order to get their hands on the touch-screen device.

Of the 30 percent of the smartphone buyers who made the switch, NPD Group has informed that 47% had left Verizon Wireless, the second largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States with a user base of approximately 68.7 million. Twenty-four percent of them came from T-Mobile, the world's sixth largest mobile phone service provider in terms of subscribers. The third most abandoned carrier was Sprint, which is also the third most largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States. Nineteen percent of the switchers came from the aforementioned company.

NPD Group has also revealed that the average percentage of people who had switched carriers between June and August had been only 23.

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for the marketing research company, has stated that the launch of Apple’s iPhone 3G on July 11, 2008 has prompted the users’ decision to become AT&T subscribers, also increasing Apple’s percentage of the smartphone consumer market from 11 to 17 percent.

Within that same time-frame (the summer months), the three top-selling smartphones were Apple Incorporated’s iPhone 3G, followed by two of Research In Motion’s gadgets, the Blackberry Curve and the Blackberry Pearl.