Facebook holds top two spots in US app market

While social networking site Facebook remains the top app in the US, its Messenger app has stolen the number two position from YouTube, a latest US market report has revealed.

The social networking service Facebook has ranked as the top smartphone app, reaching 73.3 percent of the app audience, followed by Facebook Messenger (59.5 percent), YouTube (59.3 percent) and Google Search (52 percent), said the latest findings from global digital media analytics firm comScore.

Twitter moved up one to number 13 while WhatsApp - that announced this week that it has hit 900 million monthly active users - is still not on the "Top 15" list.

Apple Music is now at number 14 and ahead of Snapchat.

"Apple was ranked as the top original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with 44.2 percent market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 51.4 percent market share," comScore added in a statement.

Samsung ranked second with 27.3 percent market share, followed by LG with 8.7 percent (up 0.3 percentage points), Motorola with 4.9 percent and HTC with 3.5 percent.

Nearly 192 million people in the US own smartphones (77.1 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in July this year, the findings showed.