They say that Windows Phone is years behind iOS and Android in the United States as far as market share and the number of users are concerned, but new statistics show that Microsoft's smartphone platform is actually gaining new users every single month.

comScore data for the third quarter of 2014 reveals that Windows Phone has actually increased its market share in the United States, a market where Android and iOS are still leading the charts.

At this point, Windows Phone is powering 3.6 percent of the smartphones in the country, the official figures reveal, up 0.2 percent from the previous quarter. This means that Windows Phone is being used by 6.2 million smartphone owners in the United States out from a total of 174 million.

Android continues to be the leading smartphone platform in the United States, according to these figures, with a total market share of 52.1 percent, while Apple's iOS is the runner-up with 41.7 percent.

Windows Phone slowly increasing share

Microsoft's smartphone platform has managed to improve its market share from 3.5 percent last month and 3.3 percent last year in September, but the growth is still happening at a pace that doesn't give Microsoft too much hope that it could compete with Android and iOS in the coming months.

In September 2013, Windows Phone had a total of 4.88 million users in the United States, while this year this figure jumped to 6.2 million users, which means that Microsoft managed to bring on board a total of 1.4 million people in the country.

This, of course, is pretty good news for the company itself, but it's still below expectations if the company plans to compete with Google's Android and Apple on the smartphone market.

Top smartphone applications

comScore data also shows that in the United States, Facebook is one of the most used application on smartphones, with 72 percent of Windows Phone, Android, and iOS customers running it on their devices right now.

YouTube comes next with 51.5 percent, followed by Google Play on Android devices with 51.1 percent. Gmail, Twitter, and Pandora Radio are also among the most popular smartphone applications right now.

As far as OEMs in the United States are concerned, Apple is currently number one with 41.7 percent market share, followed by Samsung, LG, and Motorola with 29, 6.9, and 5.4 percent of the market.

As you can see, Microsoft isn't quite the most active player on the smartphone market, but there's no doubt that there's still hope that Windows Phone can recover, and looking at Redmond's new way of addressing consumer feedback, the future clearly looks bright.