Who's Your Daddy? Samsung!

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Samsung is kicking butt with it's Galaxy S Android smartphones. Not even a year ago, Samsung held a whopping 9 percent and some change of the Android smartphone market here in the United States. Third quarter results are in, and it now has a little more than 32 percent.

Keep in mind that is 32 percent of a much larger market to share. Android has grown dramatically over the past three quarters as well.

What's more, the December issue of Consumer Reports is out on stands today with its annual survery results on both carriers and best of breed cell phones and smartphones. Samsung swept all the major carriers for first place in smartphone sales, albeit it was in a tie with AT&T and Verizon.

Here's the breakdown on that:

- T-Mobile: Samsung Vibrant No. 1 selling smartphone

- Sprint: Samsung Epic 4G No. 1 selling smartphone

- AT&T: Samsung Captivate ties for first with the iPhone

- Verizon: Samsung Fascinate ties for first with Motorola's Droid X

All that and Google's next version of Android (code-named Gingerbread), the Nexus S, is coming out on December 16; just in time for last-minute holiday shoppers. The Nexus S will be Android 2.3 on the inside and all Samsung on the outside. Google and Samsung partnered up to develop this one together.

Bottom line: you've got to hand it to Samsung. There are more than 200 companies making Android handsets, Samsung has somehow positioned itself over the past year for the best ride on Google's coattails.

Speaking of that Consumer Reports issue, the news is not so good for AT&T. It got pasted by the 58,000 people in its annual survey of best and worst carriers. AT&T came in second to worst last year. That was embarassing. This is mortifying.

For those of you familiar with CR's rating icons, this time AT&T got the dreaded worst rating with a completely blacked out circle in every category except one. It got a half black circle in texting (Woo Hoo!). 

Half of the AT&T customers surveyed were iPhone users, by the way. Hmm ... I wonder what will happen if Verizon really does start selling iPhones in early 2011?

Other things I wonder about:

- Has Steve Jobs called AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson yet?

- Did he do it on a landline to avoid risking his call being dropped?

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio