Long time leader Motorola was being chased down by Samsung and LG, with all three parties holding just over 20 percent of the market each.
Samsung surge
Fast forward to comScore's latest report, and suddenly there's no battle at the top Samsung is almost four percentage points ahead of its nearest competitor LG, taking hold of around a quarter share of the market.
While said share is up 1.3 percent during the three month period of the report, all of its competitors saw their shares contract Motorola down 1.7 percentage points to a 16.7 percent share of the market.
In the last 12 months, Motorola has lost almost 7 percent of its market share in the US.
Tight tussle at the top
Samsung's success is also having a major impact on the battle between the three major platform holders RIM, Google and Apple.
As reported last month, Android is still on track to become the largest OS in the US over the course of the next few months, its share surging by 7.3 percent to 28.7 percent in December.
In comparison, current market leader RIM saw its share fall by 5.7 percent. The launch of both the BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry OS 6.0 in Q3 2010 seems to have had little impact on the firm's standing in the US.
Apple, meanwhile, continues to gain market share, though not at the same rate as closest rival Android. Currently, iPhone accounts for 25.0 percent of the market, although increased competition means said total is actually 0.3 percentage points down yoy.
Window of opportunity?
In total, the US smartphone userbase is up 60 percent yoy, topping 63.2 million in the three month period ending December 2010.
Interestingly, the launch of Windows Phone 7 hasn't yet halted the decline of Microsoft in its home territory, its share down 1.5 percentage points to 8.4 percent. However, the rate of decline itself is slowing, suggesting 2011 may see the platform expanding its base again, albeit at an especially slow pace.
You can view a summary of the findings in full on comScore's website.
