red-hot device

The NPD Group, a market-research firm, reports that 30 percent of the U.S. consumers who purchased Apple's iPhone 3G from its release on July 11 through August switched mobile carriers in order to join AT&T, which holds exclusive U.S. sales rights for the red-hot device.

About half of AT&T's new iPhone 3G customers elected to switch from Verizon Wireless, while 24 percent came from T-Mobile defections, and 19 percent abandoned Sprint, noted Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD.