Motorola's Razr has risen to the top of the US mobile phone market, reports market analyst NPD Group.

The phone helped Motorola maintain a comfortable lead in the US with a 30 per cent market share, ahead of LG, Nokia and Samsung each with 16 per cent share.

Motorola phones held three spots in the top five best selling phones, with the v551 and the v180. Nokia's 6010 came in second and the LG VX6100 fourth.

Worldwide Nokia is the largest mobile phone maker.

Total shipments of mobile phones in North America reached 31.6m units in the third quarter, up seven per cent from the previous quarter. This amounted to more than $2bn in sales for the phone maker.

"The handset market was very robust in the third quarter," said Neil Strother, research director for mobile devices at The NPD Group.

"These numbers reflect strong replacement demand among consumers, coupled with more limited growth from new subscribers."