• by Mark Walsh , April 3, 2012

Android for the first time surpassed 50% penetration on U.S. smartphones as of the end of February, according to the latest data from comScore. That’s up from 33% a year ago, and from 48.6% in January. Apple’s iOS trailed with 30.2% market share in February, up from 29.5% the prior month.

BlackBerry and Windows Phone, however, both continued to head in the wrong direction. The RIM platform had 13.4% share, down from 15.2% in January, while the Microsoft mobile operating system, fell from 4.4% to 3.9%.

Looking at mobile usage, nearly half of U.S. mobile users (13 and older) used downloaded apps and used a browser in February. More than a third (36.1%) accessed a social networking site or blog, about a third (32.3%) played games, and a quarter listened to music on their mobile phones. Texting remained easily the most popular non-voice mobile activity, with nearly 75% of users sending text messages.

Samsung retained its hold on the No. 1 spot among phone manufacturers in the U.S., with a 25.6% share. LG was second, with 19.4%, followed by Apple (13.5%), Motorola (12.8%) and HTC (6.3%).