Android, iPhone Gain In Smartphone MarketAndroid, iPhone Gain In Smartphone Market

Google's Android phones have jumped to a 5.2% share of the U.S. smartphone market and are poised to overtake Palm in subscriber numbers, according to market research firm comScore.

In releasing its figures for the last quarter of 2009, comScore said that Research In Motion's Blackberry platform still dominates the U.S. smartphone landscape with a 41.6% market share. RIM, however, lost a point as Google, still a newcomer to the market, jumped from 2.5% in the previous quarter to a 5.2% share in the final quarter. Apple's iPhone also gained as it captured 25.3% in the final quarter, up from 24.1% in the third quarter.

Moreover, there seems to be plenty of room for more big gains. ComScore said just 17% of mobile phone users had smartphones at the end of 2009, up from 11% at the end of 2008.

Palm and Microsoft -- the latter with its Windows Mobile platform devices -- continued their slide, with Palm garnering 6.1% of the smartphone market and Microsoft, 18%. Nokia, which has some 40% of the global smartphone market, didn't make it into the top five U.S. providers. However, the European-based handset provider did capture 9.2% of the overall mobile phone market in the United States.

"A total of 234 million people age 13 and older in the U.S. used mobile devices in December 2009," comScore said in releasing the results for the fourth quarter of 2009. "Device manufacturer Motorola was the top-ranked OEM with 23.5% of U.S. mobile devices." While Motorola still has a strong family of mid-range handsets, it didn't break into the top five smartphone suppliers even though its new Android handsets are beginning to make their mark in the category.

In the mid-range category, LG and Samsung each captured slightly more than 20% of the market followed by Nokia (9.2%) and RIM (7%).