Apple tops US smartphone OEMs while Android still leads

The latest comScore report for the three month period ending in in September has Apple solidifying its role as the number one smartphone OEM in the US with a 0.7 point increase to 40.6%. Samsung also enjoyed its own 1.2 point increase over the previous quarter to 24.9%. This comes at the expense of HTC and Motorola, who suffered 1.4 and 0.4 point losses, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Android and iOS dominance of smartphone market continued as both combine for some 92.4% of the overall pie, a combined 0.5 point increase over the previous three month period. This came mostly at the expense of the death spiral that is BlackBerry's market share, who has suffered another decrease and now controls just 3.8% of the market.

Microsoft's Windows Phone OS is slowly climbing its way into third place, which is obviously a ways away from the other two. Nevertheless, WP's growth is starting to show ever-so-slight hints of gaining momentum, as the latest report reveals that it's become the second largest mobile OS in some 19 countries, including Finland, Vietnam, Italy, Thailand, Turkey, and Russia.

In Q3 2013 over a quarter of a billion smartphones shipped worldwide, which is a year-over-year growth of 44%. With such a huge number of devices making their way into the pockets of so many people globally, even a miniscule-looking market shares can equate to humongous profits