More good news for Microsoft: Nokia now No. 4 U.S. smartphone vendor

Beating out Motorola may not mean much these days, but Microsoft nonetheless has to be happy that Nokia has blown past Motorola to become America’s No. 4 smartphone vendor. According to new data from Counterpoint Research, Nokia’s share of the American smartphone market has surged from a mere 1.4% in the second quarter of 2013 to 4.1% in the third quarter. Motorola, meanwhile, saw its share of the American smartphone market continue to erode and accounted for just 3.6% of all U.S. smartphone shipments in Q3 2013. Nokia still has a long way to go to reach Apple and Samsung, which each accounted for more than a third of all U.S. smartphone shipments in Q3 and remained deadlocked at the top of the American market.