Android cedes ground to iOS in U.S. smartphone market during April

Data from research firm's MobiLens service showed Apple maintaining a steady forward pace over the month of April amid a growing U.S. smartphone market, while Android exhibited a small drop in share during the same period.

The survey polled 30,000 mobile subscribers and found that during the three months ending in April, Android remained the top U.S. platform and managed to gain 2.2 points to end the period with a 50.8 percent market share. While Google's OS saw an overall gain over the period, the platform saw a month-to-month decline as it stood with a 51 percent share at the end of March after rising 3.7 percent, a relatively steep bump considering the saturated marketplace.

Number two Apple finished the three-month period up 1.9 percent with a 31.4 percent share of the U.S. market. The iPhone rose a modest 0.7 points in April and was one of the two top-five mobile platforms to gain marketshare. Nokia's Windows Phone helped the fledgling platform eke out 0.1 points of progress while RIM and Symbian continued to tumble losing 0.7 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Over 107 million people owned smartphones at the end of April representing a 6 point rise since January. Also up over the three months ending in April was downloaded app usage which enjoyed a 1.6 percent rise while mobile browser use saw a 0.5 point bump. Texting suffered a 0.5 percent drop, but an overwhelming 74.1 percent of smartphone owners still use the service.