Android, Samsung top U.S. mobile phone market

Among handset makers, Samsung kept its lead, although its market share remained flat. LG and Motorola took second and third place, respectively, each losing more than half a percentage point from the previous quarter.ComScoreThough in fourth place with 10.2 percent, Apple was the only mobile phone manufacturer to see its share rise. And RIM was again stuck in last place with 7.1 percent of the market.Samsung has been climbing the charts lately in the mobile phone arena. The Korean handset maker recently topped Apple with a higher number of smartphone shipments around the world, according to both IDC and Strategy Analytics.Related storiesSamsung outshines Apple in smartphone shipments, market shareSamsung overtakes Apple to win smartphone crownAndroid to overtake Apple in app downloadsUnder-45 crowd: Most carry smartphones nowFor the quarter, text messaging proved the most popular activity, noted ComScore, with 71 percent of mobile phone users sending and receiving texts. Mobile browsers were used by amost 43 percent, downloading apps was done by 42.5 percent, and tapping into social networks or blogs was a favorite task among 31.5 percent.To compile its data. ComScore surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers through its MobiLens service.

Android tops U.S. smartphone sales, but iOS catching up

Apple's iOS continues to play catch up with Android in the U.S. smartphone game.For the three months ending in June, Android scored 51.5 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, research firm Kantar Worldpanel said Monday. That number was a slight drop from the 52.6 percent seen for the same period in 2012.iOS trailed with 42.5 percent of all smartphone sales. But that figure showed a gain from the 39.2 percent share over the same period last year.Microsoft's Windows Phone also captured a larger chunk of sales, winning a 4 percent share compared with 2.9 percent a year ago. BlackBerry didn't fare as well, watching its slice of sales drop to 1.1 percent from 4 percent last year.Apple scored 40 percent of its smartphone sales from Verizon Wireless, 39 percent from AT&T, 10 percent from Sprint, and 8 percent from T-Mobile. Verizon also did well selling Android and Windows Phone handsets, according to Kantar. Android snared 35 percent of its sales from Verizon, 17 percent from Sprint, 16 percent from AT&T, and 13 percent from T-Mobile.The data comes from Kantar's USA consumer panel, which conducts more than 240,000 interviews per year with mobile phone users. The information specifically highlights smartphone sales rather than market share.