Apple has taken back leadership of the US smartphone market from Google’s Android platform, as the two extend their dominance of the sector at the expense of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

The launch of its latest iPhone model more than doubled Apple’s share of the US market in the past year, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel, a market researcher.

According to Kantar, in the 12 weeks to October 28th, Apple’s iPhone took 48.1 per cent of the US market, from 22.4 per cent in the same period a year ago. Android’s share fell from 63.3 per cent to 46.7 per cent.Ahead of the important Christmas period, Kantar predicts that the iPhone 5 will propel Apple to its highest-ever share of the market. – Copyright 2012 the Financial Times Limited