Well, I'll be durned. Vodafone in the U.K. recently posted a list of its top 10 selling phones. Sitting at the very top is the Nokia N97, which has received less than favorable reviews. Fluke, or are non-geeks just not as picky?I have yet to read a glowing review of the N97 (InformationWeek's should be published soon). In fact, one of my blogger friends wrote in his review, "Nokia is doomed." I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but the N97 has some serious usability issues. It is extremely underpowered, slow to respond and the user interface is an obvious slap-dash construct meant to fill the gap between S60's demise and Nokia's new mobile operating system.

But that doesn't seem to matter to the buying public -- at least in the U.K.

Vodafone's top 10 best list is an interesting snapshot of the mobile industry. The are:

1. Nokia N97 32GB 2. Nokia 5800 3. Sony Ericsson W595 4. Sony Ericsson C510 5. Samsung Jet 6. Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition 7. Samsung Steel L810 8. Nokia 6300 9. BlackBerry Storm 10. HTC Magic

Beyond the N97, Nokia's other touchscreen device, the 5800 Xpress Music, ranks number two. The 5800, which runs the same S60 5th Edition operating system as the N97, has been a fairly good seller for Nokia. Were I Nokia, I'd be crowing about these sales charts, especially in light of yesterday's quarterly report.

What's even more interesting it a quick look at the rest of the top ten. Notice the number 5, number 9 and number 10 spots, filled by the Samsung Jet, BlackBerry Storm and HTC Magic, respectively. That makes five of the top ten handsets for sale in the U.K. touch-based devices. That clearly marks a trend. Touch phones are popular -- even if they aren't all that good.