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Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system and Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) rival iOS platform continued to gain market share in April, whittling away share from rivals Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Mobile.
ComScore said Android paced the field with 36.4 percent U.S. smartphone market share, up nearly 2 percentage points from 34.7 percent in March. iOS grew to an even 26 percent from 25.5 percent over the same period.
BlackBerry ranked third behind iOS with 25.7 percent share, down from 27 percent in March and 28.9 percent through February, according to the researcher. BlackBerry share stood at 33.4 percent in November, before Android handsets and Apple’s iPhone racked up the bulk of holiday season smartphone sales.
RIM also lost hardware share to Apple-which, with 8.3 percent of smartphone sales, slipped in front of the struggling BlackBerry maker, now No. 5 with 8.2 percent. Samsung (24.5 percent), LG (20.9 percent) and Motorola (15.6 percent) led OEM market share.
The Windows Mobile picture appears bleaker, as the platform slid to 6.7 percent in April from 7.5 percent in March and 8 percent in January.
Windows Phone reportedly commands 1 percent market share, according to Nielsen, which also found Android commanded 36 percent of the market through April.
Nielsen, however, also had Windows Mobile at 9 percent, putting Microsoft’s mobile platforms up a few points over comScore’s figures. Microsoft expects to significantly grow market share through its partnership with phone maker Nokia, whose own mobile fortunes are waning.
The moral here is that Android and iOS continue to cement their dominant one-two punch in the U.S. smartphone market, where 74.6 million people in the U.S. claimed to own smartphones through April.
Google reported at Google I/O that Android had shipped on over 100 million smartphones, and is activated on 400,000 devices each day.
Meanwhile, Apple has shipped over 100 million iPhones since July 2007, making it the most popular smartphone in the world to date.
Apple will unveil its iOS 5 software June 6 at its Worldwide Developer Conference, where it will also likely offer a target date for the iPhone 5.