Phones running Android close gap on iOS in America

The latest ComScore report on smartphone ownership in the US has revealed that Android-based handsets are closing the gap on Apple's iOS devices, with both platforms eating into the lead of Research in Motion's Blackberry.

Android is now the favoured platform for 23.5 per cent of North American smartphone users, a rise of six and a half per cent from ComScore's study in July. The iPhone's share is also rising, albeit only slightly, up to 24.6 per cent from 23.8 in July, reports Gamasutra.

Much of this increase comes at the expense of the Blackberry's dominance, although those machines still hold 35.8 per cent of the market share. Microsoft and Palm now hold only ten and four per cent of the market each.

The figures don't present quite the clear picture which they might appear to, at least in terms of the potential user base for the platforms' various app stores. iPod Touches are not included in the study, for example, although they are capable of playing almost every game available for the iPhone range.

Also, while iOS devices operate across a much shorter spectrum of technical capacity, Android phones are much more varied in their capabilities, meaning that a full market reach is more difficult for apps.

Nonetheless, a fourteen per cent rise in the number of smartphones in the US means that both iOS and Android platforms now have more than fourteen million users each in North America, with one in four cellphones now a smartphone – making a total of 60.7 million - 23.7 per cent of which are used to play games.