• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 2, 2012

Android’s share of the U.S. smartphone market increased slightly to 52.5% for the three months ending in September, according to the latest data from comScore. The iPhone’s market share increased about 2 percentage points to 34.3%, possibly get a lift from the release of the iPhone 5 in late September.

BlackBerry lost more ground in the third quarter, dropping about 2 points to 8.4%, while Windows Phone was at 3.6% and Symbian, 0.6%.

In terms of usage, three in four mobile users were text messaging in the quarter, with more than half (54%) using downloaded apps and browsing the mobile Web (53%). Four in ten were social networking on phones, 34% played games and 29% listened to music.

Samsung was the top manufacturer, with 26% share, pulling further ahead of LG, at 17.7%. Closing in on LG for the No. 2 spot is Apple, with 17.5%, up 2 points from the second quarter. Rounding out the top five were Motorola, 10.9%, and HTC, 6.2%.