Note to Apple: Users Value Price Over Phone

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Dear iPhone users: It's not about you.

We're talking to you, fanboys. We realize you're all geeked up on that Gartner(IT) report released earlier this month that said Apple's(AAPL) iPhone sales were up 10.5% from the same time last year. Guess what? Nobody cares.

According to a Nielsen report based on findings from its 2009 Mobile Insights Survey, the merits of a specific phone ranked No. 7 among the factors consumers consider when buying a new phone -- the same position held in pre-iPhone 2006. They cited price as their top concern.

While the Gartner report highlighted the iPhone's sales growth, it also pantsed Apple's 13% smartphone market share by placing it squarely in the shadow of Research In Motion's(RIMM) nearly 19% stake and Nokia's(NOK) 45% stranglehold on the sector.

In fact, according to estimates from mobile advertising server AdMob, there are as many iPod Touch units (11.5 million) in the U.S. right now as there are iPhones (13.25 million). Blame Apple's exclusivity agreement with AT&T (T) (and AT&T's service problems) if you'd like, but analysts won't be downloading an excuses app any time soon.

"People care about the iPhone, but not about anything else," says Roger Entner, Nielsen's senior vice president of research, insights and telecom, and author of the report. "Let's stop pretending that this is about handset exclusivity and that people are crippled and stifled by these exclusive contracts. They don't give a (expletive)."

According to Entner's findings, 23% of people who signed up with AT&T joined because of the iPhone. For the smartphone market as a whole, that group is in the mid-single digits. Globally, judging by an In-Stat report released in June, those choosing AT&T for the iPhone are an infinitesimally smaller piece of the pie -- considering only 11% of mobile users embrace 3G technology at all. In four years, iPhone 3G, 3GS and other 3G users still won't make up 30% of the market. Nielsen's findings show that most people care about cost, availability of family plans and sound quality.