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Blackberry has regained the title as bestselling U.S. smartphone for the first quarter of 2009, perhaps this will serve as motivation for Apple to make a “lite” version of the iPhone or lower the price even further.

According to data from NPD Group, the top 5 smart phones were:

1. BlackBerry Curve (all 8300 models)
2. Apple iPhone
3. BlackBerry Storm
4. BlackBerry Pearl
5. T-Mobile G1

BlackBerry also offers multiple models which are also represented on the top sales list. NPD attributes the surge to a number of factors including aggressive giveaways as well as broader availability of the BlackBerry across the four major U.S. national carriers.

DaringFireball’s John Gruber believes that Apple will model the iPhone product line expansion after the iPod’s:

Apple went on to repeatedly improve upon the iPod in two ways: on the high end by producing new devices with the same shape and price but with new features (additional storage, color screens, larger screens, video, etc.); on the low end by taking the existing features and making them smaller and cheaper.

The reason why Apple did this with the iPod, and why I’m convinced they’ll do it again with the iPhone, is that when it comes to managing the balance between per-unit profit and overall market share, Apple is determined to err on the side of market share.

Gruber notes this plan is very different than Apple’s Mac strategy in the much more mature PC market. He also believes this is the reason why Apple will eventually have to broaden the iPhone’s availability beyond AT&T.