Microsoft continues to decline in the smartphone platform market in the U.S, while Google's Android is pulling away from the rest of the smartphone pack, according to new data from market research firm comScore.

For the three months ending in April, Microsoft’s market share declined to 6.7 percent from 8 percent in January, while Android's market share rose to 36.4 from 31.2 percent in January and Apple's market share gained slightly to 26 percent from 24.7 percent in April.

Windows Phone 7 lacks a number of features despite the innovation of its user interface. Microsoft hopes to gain market share once Nokia Windows Phones and its wide-ranging “Mango” software update get released later this year.

The news is grim for RIM. RIM’s market share declined to 25.7 percent in April from 30.4 percent in January, while Samsung was the top handset manufacturer with 24.5 percent of the U.S. market.

According to the report, 74.6 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in April 2011, up 13 percent from the three-month period ending in January 2011.

Meanwhile, a recent Nielsen survey revealed that Google's Android devices have become the most popular smartphones in the US, and are set to leave Apple iPhones way behind.

According to the Nielsen survey, 36 percent mobile customers in the United States now use Android devices, while 26 percent use Apple iPhones and 23 percent are Blackberry users. Android smartphone users utilize an average of 582 MB of data each month, compared to 492 MB by iPhone owners.

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