As a smartphone marketplace continues to flip flop, a Android height recently pulled forward of tip opposition Apple, convalescent a tip mark as a best-selling U.S. smartphone handling system.

According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech data, approximately 49.4 percent of smartphones sole in a three-month duration finale Jan. 2013 ran Android, adult 6.4 percent compared to a same duration final year.

Meanwhile, Apple’s iOS fell into second place, with 45.9 percent of sales, down 4.7 percent from 2012. Microsoft’s Windows Phone height saw 3.2 percent expansion in a same time period.

In early January, Kantar found that Apple led tellurian sales during a 12-week duration finale Nov. 25. With 53.3 percent of a U.S. smartphone marketplace during a time, it was a initial time a height surpassed 50 percent sales share, according to Kantar. During a same period, Android sales forsaken 10.9 percent to 41.9 percent, and Windows took third place with 2.7 percent.

Part of Android increase, Kantar researcher Mary-Ann Parlato said, can be attributed to high Sprint smartphone sales. In a tumble of 2012, sales on Sprint were divided roughly 50/50 between Android and iOS, Parlato explained in a statement. But in a many new period, Android’s share of Sprint sales increasing by some-more than 22 percent, from 49.3 percent to 71.9 percent.

Recent cost drops in Sprint’s Android lineup have also helped: final year’s levels remained solid — iOS for $130 and Android for $127 — though a poignant diminution to $95 for Android phones, while iOS indeed rose to $146, helped pull a Google-run handling complement into first.

Samsung smartphones dull out many of Sprint’s Jan sales — a sum 60.3 percent. The manufacturer’s flagship Galaxy S III model, launched in mid-2012, led a charge. While it prisoner usually 14 percent of Sprint’s smartphone sales by October, a $100 cost dump and a holiday selling deteriorate gained a S III a 39 percent push.

Samsung reliable currently that it will betray a subsequent flagship phone, a Galaxy S IV, on Mar 14.

A changing marketplace also managed to file a tip conduit rankings, pulling Verizon behind to a tip mark with 35.2 percent of smartphones sole in a 3 months finale in January. ATT fell into second place, carrying 28.2 percent of sales. And while Sprint helped minister to Android’s success, a use provider stays in a third position, with 14.2 percent share; a association gained usually 0.8 percent year-on-year sales.