• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 6, 2013

Android lost ground in the U.S. smartphone market at the start of 2013, even as Apple’s iOS surged on strong iPhone 5 sales. The share of smartphones running the Google operating system dropped to 52.3% from 53.6% for the three months ending January, according to the latest comScore data.

In the same period, iOS picked up 3.5 percentage points to reach 37.8% share, according to new comScore data. Furthermore, Apple accounted for 88% of new smartphone users over the three-month period. Apple reported selling 47.8 million iPhones in the December quarter, up from 37 million a year earlier.

Android appears to have peaked after reaching 50% share in the U.S. last year.

Apart from the two smartphone giants, BlackBerry continued its downward spiral, dropping 1.9 percentage points to 5.9%, as the company’s new BlackBerry 10 devices have yet to launch in the U.S. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS was essentially flat, with 3.1% share, and Symbian, at just 0.5%.

Among smartphone makers, Apple increased its lead over Samsung, reaching 37.8% market share in the U.S., up from 34.3% in October. Samsung’s share rose 1.9 points to 21.4%. Rounding out the top five were HTC (9.7%), Motorola (8.6%), and LG (7%).

Overall, 129.4 million people owned smartphones, representing 55% of U.S. mobile users, as January, up 7% since October.