RESTON, Va. (AP) – Apple Inc.'s iPhone gained a percentage point of U.S. smartphone market share, while BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Inc. lost a point in the last three months of 2009, according to research group comScore Inc.

ComScore reported Monday that the BlackBerry is still the most widely used smartphone system in the U.S., with 41.6 percent of the market – one point less than in the previous quarter.

At the same time, Apple gained 1.2 percentage points to reach 25.3 percent of the U.S. smartphone market.

Microsoft Corp., the No. 3 smartphone software provider, held 18 percent of the market, followed by Palm Inc. with 6.1 percent and Google Inc. with 5.2 percent.

Motorola Inc. remained the top overall handset hardware maker in the quarter, with 23.5 percent market share. Its closest competitors, LG Electronics and Samsung, made 21.9 percent and 21.2 percent of all the phones used in the U.S., respectively, followed by Nokia Corp. and RIM.