Latest comscore numbers show an interesting puzzle in the US smartphone market.

Comscore numbers are about the installed base, not about the current sales, and they are a bit laggy, because they are based on some sort of 3 month moving average.  Nonetheless, you would expect (given the breathless analyst reports about iPhone 5s) that the 3 month moving average at the end of October would move the needle a bit in Apple's direction.  But it didn't, as shown by Android/Apple share per month:

May 52.4 vs 39.2
Jun 52.0 vs 39.9
Jul 51.8 vs 40.4
Aug 51.6 vs 40.7
Sep 51.8 vs 40.6
Oct 52.2 vs 40.6

What's going on?  For a start, I suspect that the market is getting more sophisticated about shifting the used units out of the US when people upgrade.  Apple is presumably now at the forefront of this, with their trade-in program.  They have every reason to try to get their market share up in other markets around the world that have less disposable income, and this is a great way to do it.  They may even be hoping that it means that more people in the US will buy new phones instead of used ones.  We'll probably know more about how that's working for them after the Christmas numbers come out.

Meanwhile, Android's numbers took a dip over the summer, but are climbing even as Apple is selling their new models like hotcakes.  I think this must mean that MVNOs and T-Mobile are getting some traction with the campaign to decouple device prices from service prices.