Android Beats Down Apple, RIM In Smartphone Share: comScore

As Android and Apple continue to gain smartphone market share, RIM is falling behind, according to a new report by comScore.

According to recent data, Google Android phones now hold 38.1 percent of smartphone subscribers, a 5.1 percent increase from three months before. Apple, in second, has 26.6 percent -- a 1.4 percent share. But Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry handsets and recently the focus of speculation regarding the company's future viabilityfollowing poor earnings results, has dropped to 24.7 percent. RIM's current standing is 4.2 percent lower than it has been in the past three months, and down 17 percent from last year.

Smartphone use generally is on the rise, comScore reports, with 76.8 million people in the U.S. listed as owning the devices. One in three mobile devices owned today are smartphones, according to comScore's data.

Mobile phone use is also turning web-focused. Web browsers were in use by close to 40 percent of subscribers, and app use rose to 38.6 percent. Still, the major use for phones is still text messaging. Close to 70 percent of phone owners used their devices for that purpose.

The results jibe with those reported last month, which showed Android gaining as RIM lost, with Apple slowly rising on RIM's fall.

Apple's position could be better than it seems, however. According to Nielsen, while the Android sales have stayed relatively static over the past three months, despite a host of new phones running the Android OS hitting the stores, Apple's recent sales have jumped from 10 percent to 17 percent sales share (a 70-percent increase).

"Apple is now driving smartphone growth," Nielsen wrote.