61.5 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in November 2010, up 10 percent from the preceding three-month period. For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Apple's iPhone, but RIM's BlackBerry is still in first place, according to comScore. RIM fell from 37.6 percent to 33.5 percent market share of smartphones, Google captured second place among smartphone platforms by moving from 19.6 percent to 26.0 percent of US smartphone subscribers, and Apple slipped to third despite its growth from 24.2 percent to 25.0 percent of the market. Microsoft, in fourth place, fell into single digits from 10.8 percent to 9.0 percent while Palm was still last and further slipped from 4.6 percent to 3.9 percent.

It seems that our prediction last month that Android would pass iOS before iOS caught up to BlackBerry has come to pass. All that remains to be seen is how quickly Android will grab first place, and whether BlackBerry will be able to keep the iPhone from taking back second place. We'll have to wait a little longer to see data for December to get a picture of how 2010 finished.