Although Samsung's sales grew in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2012, Apple continued to lead overall smartphone sales with 39 percent of the market compared to Samsung's 30 percent market share, the NPD Group reported today.

Apple and Samsung continued to run away from all the other smartphone makers accounting for nearly 70 percent of all sales during Q4 2012, the information company said. Motorola captured the 7% of the U.S. market, followed by HTC and LG (6%).

According to seperate data released by Strategy Analytics, Apple shipped 17.7 million iPhones in Q4 for a record 34 percent share of the market.

Samsung shipped 16.8 million units during the fourth quarter. However, the KOrean company remained the biggest seller of phones in the U.S. during 2012, shipping 53 million phones to Apple's 43.7 million, Strategy Analytics added.

"Even taking into account the tremendous sales growth of the Galaxy III and other Samsung smartphones, the iPhone is still king of the U.S.-market hill," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group. "In addition to strong U.S. sales of iPhone 5, Apple has been bolstered by strong and continued demand for older, less-expensive iPhone models."

Based on information from NPD's monthly Mobile Phone Track service, when comparing Q3 2012 with Q4 2012, U.S. iPhone 4 sales increased 79 percent and iPhone 4S sales grew 43 percent. Sales of the iPhone 5 made up 43 percent of all iPhone sales in Q4 2012 and accounted for almost two thirds of all post-paid smartphone sales above $199

Based on the latest information from NPD, the top-selling mobile phones in the U.S. were the iPhone 5, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III, the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4 and the 5 Samsung Galaxy S II.

Total mobile phone unit sales increased 24 percent in Q4 2012, compared to the previous year with smartphones increasing by 52 percent and feature phones declining by 31 percent.