Apple stays on top in U.S. smartphone market, study says

When it comes to smartphones in the U.S., Apple remains on top, a new study from ComScore says.

During the three months ended in February, Apple held onto its title as the No. 1 smartphone vendor in the U.S. the market tracker said. The Cupertino, Calif., company controlled 39 percent of the market, up 3.9 percentage points from the three months ended in November. Samsung, in the No. 2 spot, held 21 percent of the market, up 1 percent point.

There's some bad news for the other Android rivals, however. HTC, Motorola, and LG all saw their market share slide from the three months ended in November, though they still ranked among the top five U.S. smartphone providers.

And the Android operating system overall saw its share drop sequentially during the period. ComScore estimated that 52 percent of U.S. smartphones ran Android in the three months ended in February, but that was 2 percentage points lower than the November period. Apple, however, gained 3.9 points of share, bringing its hold on the market to 39 percent.

BlackBerry also saw its share slide during the period, down 1.9 percentage points to 5.4 percent.

Microsoft, however, gained a slight amount of share, up 0.2 percentage points to 3.2 percent. Nokia's Symbian stayed flat at 0.5 percent share.

The period ComScore examined came just before many of the vendors released new devices. BlackBerry's newest smartphone went on sale only last month, while HTC's flagship device, the HTC One, will be available in a couple weeks. Samsung's Galaxy S4, unveiled during a March 14 event, should follow shortly thereafter. It's likely some customers held off on Android and BlackBerry smartphone purchases ahead of the new device launches.