Palm has increased its share of the US smartphone market at the expense of Apple’s iPhone, according to a new industry study. Research group IDC says that Palm accounted for 13.4 percent of the market in the first-quarter of the year, up from 7.9 percent in the previous quarter, while Apple’s share fell to 19.2 percent from 26.7 percent. RIM’s BlackBerry remained the market-leader in the segment, increasing its share from 35.1 percent to 44.5 percent. IDC said that the total US smartphone market doubled over the year earlier period, reaching 6.7 million units, and predicted that unit shipments in the country will increase 85 percent this year.

According to IDC analyst Ryan Reith, Palm benefited from a lull in iPhone sales attributed to the arrival of the new 3G version of the device, which is expected to launch in the US later this month. He adds that Palm’s strong performance in the quarter was also down to the pricing of its flagship Centro device, which retails for US$99 – about a quarter of the cost of the iPhone. “The Centro’s been a success because it’s very attractive to someone who doesn’t want to pay US$300 to US$400,” Reith said in an interview with Bloomberg. Centro has been launched by US operators AT&T and Sprint Nextel.