Latest Data Shows Apple and Samsung Pulling Further Ahead in Smartphone Wars

The latest comScore data is out and it shows that the duopoly is still firmly intact and widening its lead. ComScore SCOR found that Apple AAPL and Samsung SSNLF hold a combined 65 percent of market share in device market. Apple holds the lead with 40.6 percent in the three months ending September—up 0.7 percent from the previous three months ending in June.

Samsung held 24.9 percent of the market—up 1.2 percent quarter over quarter. In a distant third place, HTC held 7.1 percent market share—down 1.4 percent. Fourth place Motorola, now owned by Google GOOG, saw a loss of 0.4 percent with 6.8 percent share and fifth place LG remained flat at 6.6 percent. HTC, Motorola, and LG only hold a combined 20.5 percent share—down from 22.3 percent the quarter prior.

Mobile operating system share looks even worse though these figures are slightly misleading. Android holds onto first place by a wide margin with 51.8 percent share—down 0.2 percent. Apple gained 0.7 percent share at 40.6 percent.

Related: Will Apple Set a New iPad Sales Record in Q1 2014?

Third place BlackBerry BBRY lost 0.6 percent of market share falling to 3.8 percent. Microsoft MSFT gained 0.2 percent rising to 3.3 percent and Symbian held 0.3 percent. Combined, the third through fifth place companies had a meager 7.4 percent compared to Apple’s iOS and Android’s 92.4 percent share.

But OS figures are slightly misleading. The Android operating system exists in numerous forms on a large number of devices from various companies. Apple’s iOS and BlackBerry’s operating systems are only available on their own phones thus reducing the possible reach. That doesn’t take away from Android’s clear dominance or BlackBerry’s falling share but OS numbers are a little less telling because of it.

The data also revealed that 147.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphone in the three months ending September. This represents a 62 percent share—up 4.5 percent since June. This would appear to indicate that the smartphone market saturation that everybody fears hasn’t happened. For companies like Apple and Samsung that continue to produce high-dollar phones, their market is still healthy—at least for now.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Tim Parker was long Apple.