Although Android has been making steady gains around the world, the popular operating system lost a bit of ground to Apple's iOS this summer in the United States, according to new comScore data.

Analytics firm comScore released a new report Friday showing that although the change is small, Android lost market share, while iOS gained the same exact amount for the three-month period ending July 2014. According to the data, Android fell to 51.5 percent of the U.S. smartphone OS market, a drop of 1 percentage point when compared to the three-month period ending April 2014. iOS, meanwhile, rose to 42.4 percent, a gain of 1 percentage point throughout the same timeframe.

The shift is miniscule, but could represent a resurgence of Apple in the smartphone market thanks to new, larger iPhones that will release in September. The slow move back to Apple may indicate consumer anticipation about the new phones as well a new wearable Apple Watch device slated for an early 2015 release.

Microsoft gained 0.3 percentage points to end July 2014 with a 3.6 percent market share, and BlackBerry followed with a 0.2-percentage-point loss for 2.3 percent of the market. Nokia's Symbian OS seems to still be hanging on, although barely, with 0.1 percent, a 50 percent drop from the three months before.

Apple does have a claim to fame in the United States, however: it is the top smartphone OEM manufacturer (read: hardware) in the United States. The Cupertino giant commands 42.4 percent of smartphone subscribers in the category, gaining 1 percent for the same time period as the operating systems. Samsung comes in second with 28.4 percent, a 0.7 percent gain. LG trails far behind in third place with 6.4 percent, followed by Motorola with 5.7 percent and HTC with 4.7 percent.

Remember, Apple is the only manufacturer of iOS hardware, so its OEM and OS share are the same when pulled out of the same subscriber pool. Android smartphones, however, are manufactured by a variety of companies like Samsung, LG, Motorola, and HTC.

According to comScore, 173 million Americans owned smartphones at the end of July, representing a 71.8 percent mobile market penetration rate.

The five smartphone apps with the largest reach were Facebook with 71.6 percent, YouTube with 53.7 percent, Google Play with 51.7 percent, Google Search with 47.5 percent, and Google Maps with 46.2 percent. 

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