Google Android widened its lead over Apple in the US smartphone market: Google captured 53.7% of smartphone subscribers in the US, while Apple secured 35.0%, according to data from the comScore MobiLens service for the three-month period ended in November 2012.

Nearly 76% of US mobile subscribers used text messaging—the most popular type of content use—on their mobile device (not just smartphones).

Samsung remained the top mobile handset manufacturer overall with 26.9% of market share.

Smartphone Platform Market Share

Some 123.3 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ended in November, up 6% from the three months ended in August.

Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 53.7% of market share (up 1.1 percentage points), while Apple's share increased 0.7 points, to 35.0%.

RIM ranked third, accounting for 7.3% of US smartphone subscribers, followed by Microsoft (3%) and Symbian (0.5%).

OEM Market Share

Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 26.9% of US mobile subscribers for the three-month period ended in November, (up 1.2 points). Apple ranked second with 18.5% (up 1.4  points), followed by LG with 17.5%, Motorola with 10.4%, and HTC with 5.9%.

Mobile Content Use

Some 75.9% of US mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in November (up 0.3 points). Downloaded applications were used by 54.2% of subscribers (up 0.8 points), while browsers were used by 52.1% (up 0.1 points).

Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 0.9 percentage points, to 39.2% of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 33.7% of the mobile audience, while 28.7% listened to music on their phones (up 0.4 points).