The iPhone has striven to be on top of the market and since its release it has achieved, if only temporarily, the number one spot in numerous categories. It's sold amazingly well, has a huge profit margin and is quickly becoming one of the most popular smartphones in the world. Further proof of that is the sales figures for Q3, which put Apple in the lead over Motorola, LG and RIM.

According to recent data from NPD, the Apple iPhone 3G has topped the Motorola RAZR to become the leading handset, breaking a 36-month streak in which Motorola held on to the number one spot. That change, NPD says, is indicative of a change in demand, where people are now more apt to buy a phone based on both aesthetics and functionality, as opposed to simply aesthetics. The latter is an important note - the iPhone clearly has a lot of technical advantage over the RAZR. That is part of the reason it has a significant price premium over a RAZR V3. That difference in price is apparently becoming less important as people begin to enjoy the more feature-rich aspects of smartphones.

This bodes well for the smartphone market - the RAZR was sort of an in-between device, something that helped bridge the gap between vanilla mobiles and more complex portable PCs. Now we wait to see if Apple can retain this lead over Motorola the next quarter.