According to The NPD Group, a market research company, when it comes to sales of mobile phones in the U.S. feature phones still rule the market, even as smartphone sales continue to increase their share of overall handset sales.

NPD’s Mobile Phone Track information reveals that unit-sales of new feature phones fell 5 percentage points to 72 percent of new handset sales in the Q2 2009, while sales of new smartphones reached 28 percent of overall consumer purchases – a 47 percent increase in the category’s share since last year.