When it comes where consumers will be shopping, the NPD Group said behaviors change a little bit at the end of the year. In the third quarter, 68 percent of new handsets were purchased at carrier stores, 8 percent were purchased at mass merchants and 9 percent at electronics stores. Around the holidays, however, consumers tend to purchase more handsets from mass merchants because they’ll be shopping for other items at the big-box retailers, wrote NPD Analyst Ross Rubin.

Those statistics don’t say whether the phones were purchased in person or online, but clearly the web is an area that retailers are gleefully jumping into. The NYTimes takes a look at the online practices of major retailers, like Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and RadioShack. While they all sell phones online, they are actually partnered with retailers, like Wirefly and LetsTalk.com. Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is another one that has become very aggressive. For instance, it is offering the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pixi from Sprint (NYSE: S) for $25, which is significantly less than the $100 that Sprint is charging.