According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, Android has usurped Apple for the #2 spot in the US smartphone market. RIM still leads the pack with it’s Blackberrys (-ies?) commanding a 36% market share, with Google’s Android OS now at 28% and Apple’s iPhone at 21%. AT&T, amazingly still the only company to offer the iPhone in the US, is still the leader of the pack with a total 32% of the smartphone market with Verizon trailing closely behind at 30%.

With the release of the iPhone OS 4.0, the next generation iPhone (Potentially called the iPhone HD), and a rumored Verizon offering all coming this summer, one can likely expect the iPhone’s market share to climb back up by fall and potentially retake second place.

The rumors on the Apple vine circulating around the Internet this week come out of Taiwan, where sources in the parts supply chain reportedly say Apple is in development of a combined UMTS/CDMA iPhone which would be due for release in Q3 of 2010. The combination of these two technologies in a single handset would allow Apple to sell only a single model to virtually all carriers around the world, without having to worry about different models in different countries or with different carriers. Most specifically, Apple would be able to sell the iPhone to Verizon customers in the US and end the longer-than-expected exclusivity with AT&T. This may be great news for Verizon and other CDMA carriers around the world, but AT&T likely isn’t thrilled. That said, customers everywhere will likely benefit, as AT&T continues (and hopefully works even harder) to update and improve their 3G coverage and competition with other networks will inevitably lower plan costs across the board.