Google takes market share in smartphone market

Android mobile phones have now taken a 5.2% share of the US smartphone market and will overtake rival Palm in subscriber numbers shortly, according to new research from analytics firm ComScore.

The company said Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS is still a market leader at 41.6%, but it lost one point to Google’s Android operating system. The Apple iPhone also gained 1.2% to 25.3%.

Nokia didn’t even make it into the top five providers in the US market, but has managed to capture 9.2% of the mobile phone market overall.

“A total of 234 million people age 13 and older in the US used mobile devices in December 2009,” ComScore said in releasing the results for the fourth quarter of 2009.

“Device manufacturer Motorola was the top-ranked OEM with 23.5% of U.S. mobile devices.”

While Motorola still has a strong family of mid-range handsets, it didn’t break into the top five smartphone suppliers even though its new Android handsets are beginning to make their mark in the category.