For the three months ending in June 2013, Samsung Electronics closed the market share gap slightly between itself and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the U.S. market. Compared with market share totals at the end of March, Apple’s share rose from 39% to 39.9%, while Samsung’s share rose from 21.7% to 23.7%.

Month-over-month, however, both companies posted gains of 0.7%. The data was collected by comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR).

Among vendors of smartphones that use the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Samsung claims 44.4% of the global market in the June quarter, according to a report from IDC, far ahead of all other Android phone vendors. Huawei claims 6%, ZTE nabs 5.9%, LG Electronics gets 5.4%, and Lenovo gets 4.5%. In the global market for operating system platforms, Android claims 79.3% of the market compared with 13.2% for Apple’s iOS, according to IDC.

In the U.S. market, comScore reports that Android enjoys 52% of the market, compared with 39.9% for iOS. BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) fell from 5.2% to 4.4%, while Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted a gain, from 3% to 3.1%. Symbian has managed to hold on to 0.3% of the market, but that will dwindle to zero over time.

The total number of Android phones shipped in the second quarter came to 187.4 million, up 73.5% year-over-year. The year-over-year increase in global shipments of Apple/iOS phones rose 20%. Apple will very likely never close that gap significantly because the Chinese market is increasingly dominated by no-name domestic vendors.

In the U.S., however, Apple continues to lead in market share and with the upcoming release of the next version of the iPhone, its market share position should improve. The company has droves of fanboys and loyal users who can’t wait to buy the company’s next new product. Add to these customers who simply don’t want to go through the torment of changing platforms and Apple’s position in the U.S. looks solid.

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