Apple’s iPhone 4S launch has helped the company regain global momentum with the US driving growth, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel (http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/).

In the latest 12 weeks of sales, Apple’s share was at 44.9% while Android took 44.8% of the US market, says the research group. Apple also increased its share of the British smartphone market from 22.0% a year ago to 34.0%.

“Apple has continued its strong sales run in the US, UK and Australia over the Christmas period,” says Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director, Kantar. ” Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover.”