Apple questions iPhone figures

Apple has fired the latest round in its ongoing battle for share of the smart phone market.

Just 24 hours after the most recent sales figures came out bosses at the company have questioned claims that its iPhone is losing out to smart phones using Google's Android operating system.

Released on Monday night, the figures looked at sales in America for the first three months of this year.

The stats put Blackberry at number one with a 36% market share, followed by Android phones on 28% and the iPhone at 21%.

Not surprising for some, considering the Android operating system is available to use on dozens of smart phones while Apple's is of course limited to the iPhone.

However, Apple says the research doesn't provide a complete picture.

"This is a very limited report on 150,000 US customers responding to an online survey" said Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison.

"It does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod Touch customers worldwide."

She added that the iPhone outsells Android in global terms and that Apple set a record in the quarter of 131% sales growth.

Apple says it's sold more than 51 million since it launched three years ago and has more than 200,000 applications available.

New software is also on the horizon with the iPhone OS 4.0 due to launch this summer and ever growing rumours about the launch of a new, fourth generation device in the next few months.