Staying up to date on the top handset devices and operating systems is vital for developing a successful app. If, for instance, Symbian suddenly became the most popular OS, developers would want to make sure they were developing the best app possible for a Symbian operating system.

How would they know such things? comScore would be a good place to start. The internet marketing research company just released their latest monthly numbers, which tracked mobile phone usage for the 3 month period ending in May 2012. During this time, 234 million Americans age 13+ used mobile devices. Here’s what they found:

Samsung the big winner in handset manufacturing:

Samsung was listed as the top handset manufacturer (25.6% market share), with LG falling close behind. Apple, Motorola, and HTC followed, seeing only a slight market share increase.

Android reigns supreme:

Android took the lead with an amazing 50.9% market share, up slightly from the last reporting period. Apple came in second with a 30.2% share, however they posted the biggest jump in market-share, with an increase of 1.7%. RIM, Microsoft and Symbian rounded out the list.

Native apps surpassed web apps:

comScore also tracked how users spent their time on their devices. This includes sending text messages, using downloaded apps, using a mobile browser, accessing social networking sites or blogs, playing games, or listening to music on their mobile phone.

The battle between native apps and web apps is a big one – and comScore’s study shows that native apps did, in fact, see the greatest increase in usage, but not by much. Downloaded applications were used by 51.1%, while browsers were used by 49.8%.

Click here to see the full report.

See any big testing implications in these trends? Let us know what you think in the comments section.