The number of US smartphone owners broke the 100m mark in January, to a total 101.3m – up 13 per cent from October 2011. Thats according to the latest figures from comScore’s mobiLens service, reporting on key trends in the US mobile phone industry for the three-month average period to the end of January 2011, based on a survey of more than 30,000 mobile subscribers.

Samsung remains the top handset manufacturer overall, with a 25.4 per cent market share, but this began to slip a little, by 0.1 per cent compared to October. LG ranks second on 20.6 per cent (down 0.9 percentage points on the previous quarter), with Motorola in third at 13.3 per cent, down 0.5 percentage points. Despite coming in fourth place, Apple was the only manufacturer in the top five to gain market share, up 2.0 percentage points with a total market share of 12.4 per cent. RIM remained level at 6.6 per cent.

Of the smartphone platforms, Android continues to lead the way, posting a 48.6 per cent market share – a 2.3 per cent increase over the period. Apple remains in second place, at 29.5 per cent – up 1.4 per cent. The rest of the platforms in the top five continue to see their market share slip – RIM, in third place at 15.2 per cent, fell by two per cent. Microsoft was down a percentage point to 4.4 per cent, and Symbian lost 0.1 percentage points, down to 1.4 per cent.