Amidst steadily growing smartphone usage, Google's Android garnered a record 43.7 percent of the U.S. market by the end of August, according to comScore. Meanwhile, the needle didn't budge much for Apple or Microsoft — now at 26.6 and 5.8 percent, respectively — with customers apparently waiting for the release of a new iPhone or the “Mango” update to Windows Phone 7.

On Oct. 5, comScore released its latest tranche of highlights from its MobiLens service, involving a "nationally representative" sample of more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers. For the three-month period ending in August, 234 million Americans 13 and older used mobile phones, and 84.5 million of them owned smartphones, the company says.

Not only was the proportion of smartphones up 10 percent from the preceding three-month period, but Google's Android ranked as the top operating system yet again. Android was up 5.6 percentage points, with 43.7 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, says comScore.

To all but the most assidous market-watchers, in fact, comScore's Oct. 5 findings will seem pretty much like those those the research firm released Aug. 30. Apple gained less than one percent share, and now has 27.3 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, according to the research firm. RIM ranks third with 19.7 percent share, but declined 5 points, comScore adds.

Meanwhile, comScore's report didn't bring much good news for Microsoft. Redmond's mobile operating systems, including Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile — according to other reports, the latter still outsells the former — were steady at 5.7 percent share.

According to figures released by comScore earlier this year, Microsoft's share had been declining steadily, as follows:

• January 2011 — 8 percent
• February 2011 — 7.7 percent
• March 2011 — 7.5 percent
• April 2011 — 6.7 percent
• May 2011 — 5.8 percent
• August 2011 — 5.7 percent

Of course, the comScore results do not reflect the release of Windows Phone 7.5 ("Mango"), which began rolling out to existing customers Sep. 27. Replete with updates — some overdue, such as copy-and-paste and multitasking for third-party apps — the operating system update has been attracting positive reviews.

Meanwhile, comScore also reported on OEM market share, noting that Samsung remains at the top with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 21 percent share and Motorola with 14 percent share. Apple strengthened its number-four position with 9.8 percent share of mobile subscribers (up 1.1 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 8.1 percent share.

Regarding mobile content usage, comScore says that during May, 70.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging, 42.1 percent used browsers (up 2.3 percentage points), and downloaded applications were used by 41.6 percent (up 3 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.3 percentage points to 30.9 percent of mobile subscribers; game-playing was done by 28.5 percent of the mobile audience (up 1.6 percentage points); and 20.7 percent listened to music on their phones, the research firm adds.

Jonathan Angel can be reached at [email protected] and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.

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