comScore has released data from its MobiLens service, reporting trends in the US mobile phone industry during the three month period ending March 2010. 

The report ranks the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and mobile operators in the US, according to their share of usage by current mobile subscribers aged 13 and older, and reviews the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone.

It finds that Samsung, Motorola and LG are separated by a mere fraction of a percentage point of market share among handset manufacturers, while Verizon leads among mobile operators, with 31.1 per cent market share.

There were 234m mobile subscribers aged 13 and over in the US in the 3-month average ending in March. Samsung was the top handset maker, with a 21.9 per cent share of US mobile subscribers, inching out Motorola by a fraction of a percent. LG was third on 21.8 per cent, with RIM and Nokia joint fourth on 8.3 per cent.

Verizon has the biggest market share on 31.1 per cent of mobile subscribers, with AT&T second on 25.2 per cent, Sprint and T-Mobile both on 12 per cent, and Tracfone on 5.1 per cent.

In an average month during the January – March window, 63.7 per cent of US mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous three-month period. Browsers were used by 30.1 per cent of US subscribers (up 2.6 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 28.6 per cent of the mobile audience (also up 2.6 percentage points). Access of social networking sites or blogs continued to increase, posting gains of 2.8 percentage points to 18.7 per cent of mobile subscribers.