The California giant captured 41.8 percent of smartphone sales in the final three months of 2013, up from 40.6 percent in the three months to September, the comScore survey showed.
The gains came following the September release of the iPhone 5s and 5c models in the United States and other world markets.
Apple remained ahead of Samsung in the US market, but the South Korean electronics giant also increased its share to 26.1 percent from 24.9 percent in the prior three months, comScore said.
Motorola, the Google-owned maker which is being sold to China's Lenovo under a deal announced last week, had a 6.7 percent market share, compared to 6.8 percent in the previous three-month period, the survey showed.
South Korea's LG was a close fourth with 6.6 percent and Taiwan's HTC fifth with 5.7 percent, comScore said.
Even though the iPhone was popular among Americans, the Android platform still held a majority with 51.5 percent of smartphone subscribers, according to the survey, a dip of 0.3 points.
Apple's iOS, which is only used on iPhones, was second with 41.8 percent.
Microsoft's Windows Phone stumbled in the third quarter, losing 0.2 percentage points for a 3.1 percent share, behind BlackBerry's 3.4 percent.
The research firm said 156 million people in the US owned smartphones in December, for 65.2 percent of the mobile phone market.
A separte survey last week by Strategy Analytics indicated that the Google Android system was used on 78.9 percent of smartphones sold globally in 2013, while Apple's global market share slipped to 15.5 percent.Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.