69.5 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in February 2011, up 13 percent from the preceding three-month period. For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Research In Motion's BlackBerry, according to comScore. Having passed the iPhone in the preceding three-month period, this now means that Android has been crowned king in the US.

Google captured first place among smartphone platforms by moving from 26.0 percent to 33.0 percent of US smartphone subscribers, RIM fell to second place by going from 33.5 percent to 28.9 percent market share of smartphones, and Apple slipped to third despite its growth from 25.0 percent to 25.2 percent of the market. Microsoft, in fourth place, fell from 9.0 percent to 7.7 percent while the HP-owned Palm was still last and further slipped from 3.9 percent to 2.8 percent.

It seems that our prediction last month that Android would pass BlackBerry next while iOS would barely move has come to pass. All that remains to be seen is whether RIM will maintain second place or fall to third and let iOS take second.

Given how quickly the mobile market is growing, these rankings will not be maintained for very long. Windows Phone has a big opportunity with Nokia, and HP is planning on giving webOS quite a boost in the next few years.