Consumers Are Buying Fewer Cell Phones But at Higher Prices, New Study Says

A new study says U.S. consumers are buying fewer cell phones but are paying more for them when they do.

The trend says consumers are growing increasingly selective with their cell phone dollars amid an increasingly inundated sea of competition.

Instead of just buying cell phones based on a low price, the trend signals that features are now beginning to win out.

A new report released on Tuesday by the NPD Group, which began tracking cell phone sales in 2005, said U.S. consumers snapped up 28 million cell phones in the second quarter of 2008.

The figure rings in at a noticeable decrease of 13 percent as compared to the second quarter of 2007. NPD reports that consumers spent $2.4 billion in the second quarter of 2008, which is only down by 2 percent from the same period in 2007.

While Motorola still reigned supreme in the new NPD study with 21 percent of all cell phones sold, that figure is down vastly from 32 percent a year ago.

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