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The iPhone has moved into position as the most popular cell phone in the land, although it does not rank number one against all companies that sell multiple phone models, such as RIM.

For the first time, Apple’s iPhone became the most popular single mobile handset in the U.S.A., although not the most popular brand. Confusing, you say? Well, it just depends how you count. The iPhone has just become the most popular when compared to the other most popular individual models of handset from companies like RIM and LG. But if you count by brand, including all of the models built by each manufacturer, the iPhone comes in third behind RIM’s Blackberry line and all of LG’s handsets. In the case of RIM, brand to brand, the iPhone sells barely more than half of the numbers attained by the Blackberry brand, according to a story on MobileCrunch.

It is also interesting that there are only 4 manufacturers of cell phones on the top ten list: Apple, RIM, LG, and Motorola. The Motorola’s that made the list are all Razr V3’s. There is as yet no Android-driven phone on the list of the top 10. These numbers come from The Nielson Company, and provide the first proof that the iPhone is the most popular single handset. The Apple mobile platform continues to climb through the ranks across the board, continually posting better growth numbers than any other manufacturer.

It is interesting to note that every time a cell- or smart-phone survey or sales analysis appears, the iPhone has posted a little bit better numbers than has RIM. At the same time, almost none of the buzz this year has been about any of the RIM or LG phones. Instead, it has been all about the iPhone, the Pre or phones running Google’s Android operating system, though none of the Android phones have made the top-seller list yet. If the Blackberry is going to maintain its lead into the future, it needs to update its telephony and user interface ideas.