Apple has extended its influence on the smartphone market even further, Gartner says in its data for the summer. The combined iPhone platform leapt from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent of worldwide share in the summer, or third place, where the next-best competitor, HTC, topped out at 6.5 percent after increasing from 4.5 percent a year earlier. Samsung was near-flat and moved up just slightly to 3.2 percent.
