In a somewhat surprising news, a new survey says the iPhone 3GS was the top selling phone in July after its release in June. The survey, conducted by Japanese Research Company GfK’s Japanese Subsidiary, had the 32GB iPhone 3GS as the most popular phone in Japan, while the 16GB ranked 9th in contract phones.

This is very surprising news considering Japan is always thought of as a leader in advanced mobile communications, design and infrastructure and the iPhone seemed to lack many features Japanese phones already had. iPhone 3GS has brought to Japan what the original iPhone and 3G lacked, a better camera with video recording capability and faster 3G service, which may be the reason for the popularity. Will the iPhone 3GS stay on top as the most popular phone, that’ll be something to keep an eye on in the upcoming months. The two iPhones weren’t the only phones to do well during the month of July, here’s the other 8 cell phones from the list of top 10 most popular phones in Japan.

2. Sharp SH-06A

3. Panasonic 830P

4. Sharp SH-05A

5. NEC N-08A

6. Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone Premier3

7. Sharp SH-02A

8. Casio W63CA

10. Sharp SH001

If you take a look at this list, you’ll notice that many of the cell phones are similar in design, flip phones with a rectangular look to it. For a country that’s supposed to be very advanced in the mobile phone sector, they look kind of bland to me.

(Via Mobile Crunch)