Company questions research that says smartphones using Google's Android OS have surpassed iPhone sales in the US.

Earlier this week the NPD said that Smartphones using Android accounted for 28% of US sales in the first quarter, ahead of Apple at 21%. Apple has since come out and said that the NPD figures don’t provide a complete picture.

"This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison.

She added that iPhone far outsells Android on a worldwide basis, pointing to a recent IDC report that showed the iPhone with a 16.1% global market share, behind No. 2 RIM and No. 1 Nokia Oyj.

"We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up any time soon," Harrison said.

Via Reuters.