Android and Samsung are still on top of comScore's latest survey of U.S. market share

Android and iOS are eating off the carcass of RIM in the U.S. according to the latest survey from comScore. Android's three month average market share at the end of August was 52.6% of the smartphone market, up from the 50.9% that the OS averaged in the three months ended in May. That increase of 1.7% was outdone by the 2.4% increase achieved by iOS. Apple's mobile OS had a three month average market share of 34.3% at the end of August.

RIM's average share has been declining and it fell a further 3.1% to 8.3% from 11.4%. At this point, the Canadian manufacturer can only sit back and wait for BlackBerry 10 to launch, and judging from the reaction to the leak of the alleged specs to its flagship model, many others are waiting too. Both Windows and Symbian lost .4% in average market share from the end of May to the end of August to 3.6% and .7% respectively. This is potentially bad news for Microsoft because no matter good Windows Phone 8 turns out to be, if the new build starts with the platform too deep in the hole, it might never be able to climb out of it.

As far as the latest manufacturer's market share is concerned, adding both smartphones and featurephones, Samsung continued to have a 25.7% share in the U.S. for the three months ended in August vs. the three months ended in May. Behind Sammy is fellow South Korean LG which lost nearly a full percentage point to an 18.2% market share. Apple increased its share during the period, which did not include the launch of the new Apple iPhone 5. Motorola (11.2%) and HTC (6.3%) round out the top five.

Three out of four mobile phone users in the states text on their phone while more than half download apps and use the browser. The number of those downloading apps has increased smartly over time as more and more users become comfortable and knowledgeable with the process.

source: comScore via Phandroid