Google Android reigns smartphone market:
For Google, the Garner report paints a similarly-favorable picture to the firm's recent report on the smartphone market. Gartner estimates that Android will run on 49% of the world's smartphones by 2012. Android, Inc.

New data from ComScore puts Google Android on the top of the list for the smartphone market category, followed by RIM and Apple in the second and the third positions respectively.

The data from comScore MobiLens service, documenting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average

period ending February 2011, showed Google Android grew 7.0 percentage points since November, strengthening its number 1 position with 33.0 percent market share.

RIM ranked second with 28.9 percent market share, followed by Apple with 25.2 percent. Microsoft (7.7 percent) and Palm (2.8 percent) rounded out the top five, comScore revealed in an statement.

69.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in February 2011, up 13 percent from the preceding three-month period.

In an interesting aspect about the data, RIM held the top spot when it came to smartphone platforms with a market share of 33.5 percent while Google held number 2 ranking against Apple.

Apple stood safe in the third spot even in the latest data. Although the technology giant was behind the internet behemoth, Apple did not lose any market share, instead just experienced a modest rise of 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Microsoft dropped 1.3 percent, while Palm lost 1.1 percent as of February 2011.

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