The LA Times is reporting that "Research in Motion's BlackBerry Curve replaced the iPhone as the best-selling smartphone among consumers in the first quarter, the NPD Group said Monday. The iPhone came in second, with two other BlackBerry models -- the Storm and the Pearl -- right behind." The NPD Group is attributing the shift to an aggressive advertising campaign by Verizon Wireless who offered a buy-one-get-one deal on Blackberrys. "The more familiar and less expensive Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major U.S. national carriers," Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD, said in a report.
