• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 4, 2012

Apple's iOS platform now runs on a third of U.S. smartphones, according to the latest comScore data. For the three months ending in January, iOS increased its share of the smartphone market from 31.4% to 33.4%. Google's Android, however, still leads by a wide margin, with a 52.2% share, up from 50.8% in April.

Struggling BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion continued to lose ground, with its share dropping two percentage points to 9.5% as of July. Microsoft's Windows Phone OS also saw further contraction, slipping from 4% to 3.6%. Symbian, meanwhile, is approaching extinction in the U.S. with 0.8% share, down from 1.3% three months ago.

Despite the recent $1 billion verdict against Samsung in its patent trial with Apple, the South Korean electronics giant remained the top phone maker, with the same roughly 26% share as in April. But Apple picked up almost two points for a 16.3% share, putting it just two points behind No. 2 LG, at 18.4%.

In terms of content usage, about three-quarters of smartphone users texted, and more than half downloaded an app or used a browser in July.