Two market research reports have come out within days telling two different, yet complimentary, stories about Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems: iOS is winning audiences in the U.S. again, but Android is taking over the world.

According to global market research firms Canalys and Strategy Analytics, the Android platform grew in global dominance, running on about 785 million devices shipped in 2013, but research from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) shows that Apple has just barely edged out Android in the U.S. during the final quarter of 2013.

Those two different takes on the iOS vs Android mobile platform battle jive well, and actually describe how the two operating systems have fared in the past. iOS has previously dominated the more-upscale U.S. market, while the cheaper, more accessible Android pretty much ran the rest of the world's devices.

In the last quarter of 2013, iOS won the U.S. market share by just 2 percentage points, with Apple's new iPhone 5s mainly to thank. Apple outsold Samsung in the U.S. by 48 percent to 31 percent, according to CIRP (via CultofMac).

That's a lift from the previous quarter, before Apple launched the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, where the Cupertino giant's smartphone was only accounting for 34 percent of the U.S. market, behind Android-based Samsung's 38 percent.

But globally, Android still dominates beyond compare. Android's 785 million smartphones in 2013 bumped the Google-built operating system up to a 79 percent share of all mobile devices in the world. That's up from 68 percent in 2012, according to Canalys. Meanwhile, on the global picture, Apple's iOS share fell from 20 percent to 15 percent, even with more shipments resulting from the new iPhone 5s. Apple's last quarter showed gains over Samsung not only in the U.S., but in the world market as a whole, but that only accounted for a rise to 17 percent in Q4.

Other rivals, however, continue to struggle in what's become almost a defacto two-OS system. Microsoft, however, experienced the fastest year-to-year growth globally, rising 69 percent.

"The soft end to the year stopped Microsoft from achieving still more positive growth," said Shanghai-based Canalys Analyst, Jingwen Wang in the company's release. The analyst continued:

"Market uncertainty and caution affected Nokia's performance in Q4, with Microsoft's acquisition of its devices business yet to complete, as did arguably insufficient marketing, as Nokia and Microsoft failed to stimulate sufficient demand for the latest Lumia products to deliver a seasonal sales boost. With Lumia accounting for such a dominant portion of Windows Phone shipments, the growth of the OS faltered too. It will be vital that on completion of the acquisition, integration takes place quickly and thoughtfully. Microsoft has much to do if it is to continue carving out a growing share of the smart phone market, not least driving the platform down to new entry-level price points, delivering innovation and new features, particularly at the high-end, and proactively working with, supporting and encouraging developers to commit to building compelling apps, and bring its app story closer to parity with its competitors. It cannot afford lengthy delays or distractions, and the combined Windows Phone devices team needs to hit the ground running."

Even with the fastest growth trend in 2013, Microsoft's mobile platform only holds about three percent of the market, both in the U.S. and overall. Other "third party" operating systems face an even more difficult future, according to both U.S. market analysis and global market reports. The most painful example may be CIRP's ranking of BlackBerry's operating system, which statistically held 0 percent of the U.S. market.