iPhone 4S best-selling phone at three top U.S. carriers in November, Samsung sales strong

Apple's iPhone 4S was the best-selling smartphone at Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint in November according to a report released Monday night by Canaccord Genuity. According to checks performed by analyst Mike Walkley and his team, Apple's iPhone 4S remained a top-seller across the board while Samsung's Galaxy S II picked up momentum ahead of the holidays. Samsung's flagship handset was the top-selling smartphone at T-Mobile and it jumped up into the No.2 spot at AT&T. Sprint's Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch was the second best-selling smartphone at Sprint as well in November, and Motorola's DROID RAZR was No.2 at Verizon Wireless.

“IPhone 4S sales strength continues as distribution increases – Our November checks indicated iPhone sales remained strong in the US, particularly at AT&T and Sprint. Further, our checks indicated strong global share gains,” Walkley wrote. “With the iPhone 4S launching in new markets including China, Brazil, and Russia during December, we anticipate strong December quarter iPhone sales and have increased our estimate from 29.0 to 30.5M units.”

The analyst also noted that Apple's iPad 2 is still the world's top-selling tablet, though he did lower his unit sales estimates to 13 million in the December quarter, down from an earlier estimate of 14 million units.

HTC lost share in November according to Walkley, in line with the expectations set last month when the Taiwan-based vendor cut its fourth-quarter forecast. “Our November checks indicated weaker sales trends for both RIM and HTC, consistent with negative pre-announcements from both companies, as we believe weak trends are company-specific for both OEMs rather than indications of a weaker smartphone macro,” he wrote in his report. “Our checks indicated HTC has lost significant share at all four US carriers following the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S II launches.”

Walkley's checks also indicated that sales of BlackBerry smartphones in the U.S. slowed significantly in November, with the high-end Bold 9900 in particular showing slowed adoption. “Following early strength for the Bold 9900, our checks indicated BlackBerry sales slowed significantly during November due to high-end smartphone share losses combined with lower-priced Nokia feature-phones and sub-$200 Android smartphones adversely impacting BlackBerry sales in emerging markets,” Walkley said. 

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