The latest statistics released recently by analytics firm comScore have revealed that while Apple and Samsung still continue to be the two top players in the US smartphone market, the 2012 fourth-quarter had the Apple iPhone retaining its dominance - in terms of subscriber numbers - in the country.

According to the comScore statistics, the US smartphone market share of the iPhone during the fourth quarter increased 2 percent vis-a-vis the previous quarter; with the result that the handset now accounts for 36.3 percent of all subscribers. In the third quarter, Apple share of the US smartphone market was 34.3 percent.

Though, with an increase of 2.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, Samsung saw a more positive surge than Apple during the fourth quarter, the South Korean device maker - grabbing 21 percent of the US smartphone market overall - still had a lower market share than its US rival. Nonetheless, the figures for Samsung marked a notable increase over its third quarter market share of 18.7 percent.

Meanwhile, going by the comScore data, following Apple and Samsung in the US smartphone market in the 2012 fourth-quarter were HTC and Motorola, which respectively had 10.2 percent and 9.1 percent market share; chiefly because of the declines they suffered towards the end of the year. LG rounded up the `top five' smartphone manufacturers' in the US smartphone market, grabbing 7.1 percent share in the fourth quarter.