US sales of smartphones running Google's Android mobile operating system surged past those of Apple for the first time in the first quarter of the year, industry research firm NPD said.

Android-powered smartphones accounted for 28 per cent of US consumer sales in the first three months of the year compared with 21 per cent for the iPhone, NPD said.

Canada's Research in Motion, maker of the popular Blackberry, retained the top spot with 36 per cent of US smartphone sales in the quarter, NPD said.

Strong sales of Motorola's Android-powered Droid and HTC's Android-based Droid Eris were cited as among the reasons for Android's surge past Apple.

Google makes its open-source Android software available to handset manufacturers and also sells its own smartphone, the Nexus One.

"As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share," said Ross Rubin, NPD's executive director of industry analysis.

According to NPD, smartphone sales at AT&T, the exclusive US carrier for the iPhone, comprised 32 per cent of the smartphone market in the quarter, followed by Verizon Wireless (30 per cent), T-Mobile (17 per cent) and Sprint (15 per cent).

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.