Figures published yesterday by Kantar WorldPanel pointed to surging numbers by the Apple handset, which by the end of October 2012 appeared in control of the U.S. smartphone market, cornering 48.1 per cent of the market.

However, Android phones were not too far behind, according to Kantar, with shares of 46.7 per cent of the market that is currently regarded as the most lucrative and biggest in the world.

Sales of Android-powered mobile phones in America dropped from the 63.3 per cent that mobile platform registered in the same period in 2011 while that of the iPhone rose from 22.4 per cent, Kantar reported.

The new data covered 12 weeks of sales performance that ended on Oct 28, the research firm noted.

Roughly within the same duration, Samsung's Galaxy S3 was declared as the world's bestselling smartphone, according to Strategic Analytics, which in some ways explain why Android remains the dominant mobile phone platform, Kantar said on its report.

Entry-level and high-end Android smartphones have become very attractive especially for consumers in emerging markets like Brazil and China, the latter slated to soon replace the U.S. as the largest mobile phone market, experts said.

In Brazil, close to 57 per cent of smartphones sold within the period cited by the Kantar study are running on Android while Apple only accounted for one per cent.

In China, Kantar listed Google's dominance at 67.5 per cent but the research firm noted too that Chinese consumers have yet to lay their hands on the new iPhone 5, thus giving Samsung and other Android brands sufficient lead time over Apple during the research period.

The same story was seen in much of the European market, where Android phones hold an overall sway of 64 per cent while Apple only secured 21 per cent.

According Reuters, Android is remarkably strong in Spain, with 82 per cent market share, and in Germany, the continent's biggest market, where the Google platform reigns supreme with 74 per cent of slice in the nation's smartphone market pie.

Apple, however, gained substantial traction in the United Kingdom, where the tech giant garnered 32.7 per cent coming from last year's five per cent, Kantar said.