More than half of mobile phone users in the United States are now owning smartphones, research firm comScore said on Friday.

New survey results from comScore showed that about 119.3 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in September, representing nearly 51 percent of the total U.S. mobile subscribers who had both smartphones and non- smartphones.

It marked the first time that U.S. smartphone penetration surged past the 50 percent threshold in comScore’s study, the research firm noted.

The latest study was based on survey of more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers.

It found that Google’s Android continued to rank as the top smartphone platform in the U.S. with 52.5 percent share, while Apple maintained the second place with a market share of 34.3 percent.

RIM and Microsoft ranked third and fourth, with shares of 8.4 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.

Galaxy Note 2 at 3 million
Meanwhile, global sales of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 2 breached the 3-million mark since its debut in late September, topping the level at a faster pace than its predecessor, the company said Friday.

Samsung has shipped more than 3 million units of Galaxy Note 2, called phablet or a hybrid of smartphone and tablet PC, just 37 days after its debut, according to an e-mailed statement.

The sales growth was more than three times faster than its previous model Galaxy Note, of which sales breached the 3-million mark in three months after its launch.

The Galaxy Note 2, which opened a new chapter of smart mobile devices, came with a 5-5-inche HD Super AMOLED display, the biggest display in smartphone market. It was powered by 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android operating system, featuring a 1.6 GHz Quad-Core processor.

iPad mini sold out
In the case of Apple, its latest product, iPad mini, in most stores was sold out in less than three hours after it launched on Friday in Singapore, the first city in Southeast Asia to see the launch of the product.

Some of the customers had queued overnight for the launch and put their hands on what they want shortly after the stores opened at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. There were customers flying from overseas, too.

The iPad mini works like the iPad, but is smaller and is half its weight. It has caused some stir but not as much as the launch of the iPhone 5, which is also produced by industry giant Apple.