Apple has pushed its way through the ranks to become the USs second biggest manufacturer of smartphones during October, according to data from comScores MobiLens service. During the three months leading up to October, Apples market share rose by 1.5 percentage points from July, to a total 17.8 per cent.

That put it on top of LG, whose share dropped by 0.8 percentage points, but behind reigning champ Samsung, which grew by 0.7 per cent to take a market share of 26.3 per cent. Rounding out the top five were Motorola (11 per cent) and HTC (six per cent).

During the period, 121.3m Americans owned smartphones – putting penetration in the US reached 51.9 per cent, up by six per cent since July.

Android topped the OS charts, with a 53.6 per cent market share, up 1.4 percentage points. Meanwhile, iOS increased its share by 0.9 per cent to 34.3 per cent. RIM ranked third (7.8 per cent), followed by Microsoft (3.2 per cent) and Symbian (0.6 per cent).

MobiLens also keeps an eye on what US mobile subscribers are doing on their phones – and all observed activities grew over the three month period. Apps saw the biggest growth here, with 54.5 per cent of mobile owners using downloaded apps, an increase of 1.9 percentage points. Browser usage lagged behind slightly at 52.7 per cent, an increae of 1.5 percentage points. Its worth noting that both of these activities are just ahead of the curve for the number of smartphones adopted in the US.