Android Still Leads iOS in U.S. Despite iPhone 5, comScore Finds

Despite recent stats that as the top U.S. mobile OS, comScore found that Google's Android was still the most popular operating system at the end of October.

Mobile ad network Chitika, meanwhile, found that Web traffic on iOS and Android devices on its network has remained relatively stable over the last few months, though iOS dominated.

Between July and October, Google's Android OS nabbed 53.6 percent of the market, up 1.4 percent, comScore found. Apple's iOS had 34.3 percent, up almost 1 percent. Rounding out the top five were: RIM, which dropped 1.7 percent to 7.8 percent; Microsoft, which dropped 0.4 percent to 3.2 percent, and Symbian, which continued its drop to land at 0.6 percent.

Overall, 121.3 million people in the U.S. now have smartphones, comScore said, or about 51.9 percent of the country, up 6 percent from July.

Last week, Kantar Worldpanel said that in the past 12 weeks, iOS of the U.S. smartphone market thanks to the iPhone 5, which placed it above Android at 46.7 percent.

Samsung continued to be the most popular handset maker, helped by the release of its Galaxy S III this summer and, more recently, the Galaxy Note II. Samsung now has 26.3 percent of the U.S. mobile market, up 0.7 percent. Apple came in No. 2 at 17.8 percent, getting a 1.5 percent boost thanks to the launch of the iPhone 5.

LG was close behind Apple at 17.6 percent, while Google-owned Motorola had 11 percent, and HTC had 6 percent of the market - all a slight decline (less than 1 percent) since July.

Chitika, meanwhile, has been keeping tabs on Web traffic to its network over the past five months, looking at impressions that came from iOS and Android devices.

"Despite all the new Android and Apple devices that have been released over the past six months, little has changed in the overall Web traffic distribution between iOS and Android," the firm concluded.

Apple's iOS made up about 65 percent of traffic to Chitika, while Android remained at 35 percent. Chitika, however, counted traffic on Apple's iPad, which continues to dominate the tablet market. "This advantage is the largest contributing factor to Apple's lead over Android," Chitika said.

Android hit a peak 40 percent in August with the release of the Galaxy S III, while Apple regained some of its shares when the iPhone 5 hit store shelves.

"Although these devices created a shift of a few percentage points shortly following release, thanks to Apple's debut of three new devices, including the iPhone 5 this fall, its bump has been gradual, but more sustained," Chitika said. "With Apple's loyal fan base and unique ability to build a tremendous degree of hype around every product launch, the company has made quick sell outs of new devices and high demand a regular occurrence."

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