Android smartphones widen lead in US market

Smartphones powered by Google software widened their lead on BlackBerry handsets in the US market during the first three months of the year, industry tracker comScore reported on Friday.

Android smartphones dethroned BlackBerry in January by capturing 31.2 percent of the US market and that share grew to 34.7 percent by the end of March, according to comScore.

BlackBerry handsets made by Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM) lost ground in the quarter, ending March with 27.1 percent of the US market.

Apple was close behind RIM with iPhone running on the California company's mobile platform commanding 25.5 percent of the market, according to comScore.

Samsung was the top handset manufacturer overall with a 24.5-percent share of the US market, comScore said, followed by LG with 20.9 percent, Motorola with 15.8 percent, RIM with 8.4 percent and Apple with 7.9 percent.

According to comScore, 234 million Americans owned mobile devices at the end of March and the number of smartphones owned climbed 15 percent to 72.5 million.