It took a computer maker and a pager company to encourage Americans a mobile handset is worth paying for, and now shoppers are splurging. U.S. customers shelled out 40 percent more for handsets last quarter than a year earlier, just as Apple Inc. put its Web-browsing iPhone on sale and Research In Motion Ltd. brought out BlackBerry e-mail phones with video features. Spending rose to a record and jumped the most since at least 2005. Americans, previously hard-pressed to pay $50 for a phone, are now more like their European and Asian counterparts and paying $300 to $400 for the top devices.
The trend will continue this holiday season, said analyst Ross Rubin at NPD Group, which collects retail data. The iPhone, which doubles as a music player, cost as much as $599 when it went on sale in June and now sells for $399. Apple shipped 1.4 million of them in the first three months.
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