Android bumps up smartphone lead over Apple's iOS

Android continues to woo more customers, increasing its lead over Apple's iOS in the U.S. smartphone arena, according to new stats from ComScore today.

For the three months ended October, Android's share of U.S. smartphone users grew 4.4 points over the prior three months, helping it scoop up 46.3 percent of the market. Apple stayed firmly in second place, gaining an extra percentage point to win a 28.1 percent share.

In third place was BlackBerry maker RIM with 17.2 percent of the market, a loss of 4.5 points from the prior three months. That left Microsoft's Windows Phone with 5.4 percent and Nokia's Symbian with 1.6 percent, both losing a small fraction of a percentage point.

Overall, 90 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three-month period ending in October, a 10 percent gain from the prior period.

Among all mobile handset makers, Samsung remained the top dog with 25 percent of the market. LG and Motorola followed in second and third place, respectively, both losing a small slice of the market. That put Apple in fourth place with a 10.8 percent share and RIM in the fifth spot with 6.6 percent.

Using its MobiLens service, ComScore surveyed more than 30,000 mobile customers in the U.S to compile its numbers.

ComScore's findings echoed a similar report from Nielsen pointing to Android's widening lead over iOS. A recent study from Zscaler also showed Android outpacing BlackBerry and IOS in the enterprise market.