While the iPhone OS was the leading smartphone platform on Millenial’s network, with 33 percent of smartphone share (ahead of BlackBerry’s 31 percent), Samsung was the top device maker, thanks to the predominance of featurephones. The company also said the US mobile web audience grew to 64.8 million users, and that its ad network reached nearly 80 percent of them.

The report also features a section on mobile app analytics, provided by Mobclix, which says that the iPhone App Store is the biggest on the block, with 115,000 apps, and also leads in downloads, with 100 million per month. Android Market is a distant second, with 20 million per month, and BlackBerry App World even further back in third, delivering 300,000 downloads per month.

Millienial adds that traffic to advertisers’ sites represented almost half of the mobile campaign destinations on its network in October, while app downloads accounted for about 30 percent. Source

The bottom line: Mobile web use – and the market for mobile ads – continues to grow. But don’t overlook smartphones, which still account for a huge chunk of the mobile web market.

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THE MOTOROLA DROID SOLD 250,000 UNITS IN ITS FIRST WEEK, according to GigaOM and based on a report from mobile analytics company Flurry. The new Android device, available only on Verizon Wireless in the US, has been well received by commentators, and now, apparently, by the market as well. Flurry says that the sales are more than four times those of T-Mobile’s MyTouch 3G in its first week of sales in August, but of course pale in comparison to the 1.6 million iPhone 3GS devices sold in its first week. Source

The bottom line: Is Motorola clawing its way back from the precipice? Could be – since software has long been its Achilles heel, turning to Android could turn out to be a smart choice, and one that saves the company.

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MORE THAN 3 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE UK HAVE REDEEMED A MOBILE COUPON, says Juniper Research in a new report. The analyst firm says that mobile coupons enjoy a redemption rate six times higher than traditional paper coupons, again highlighting the viability of mobile marketing to deliver results for advertisers and brands. Source

The bottom line: Mobile coupons seem like a no-brainer, if only because people are less likely to forget to bring their phone to a shop than a paper coupon! But combined with opt-in campaigns and any number of targeting techniques, they represent a valuable resource for retailers.

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THE NUMBER OF MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING USERS IN LATIN AMERICA AND AFRICA WILL INCREASE TENFOLD BY 2015, says a new report from analyst firm Frost & Sullivan and mobile social networking provider Colibria. F&S says the market will amount to 527 million users and be worth $2.4 billion in six years, reflecting the increased popularity of the services, but also the prevalence of mobile as an Internet channel in emerging markets. Source

The bottom line: It’s easy to predict the growth of mobile social networks, but anybody eyeing the space has to keep in mind how people in emerging markets use their mobiles and access the internet primarily through them.

Comscore says that the iPhone represents a third of those touchscreen devices, while the top ten list is filled with a number of touchscreen featurephones. Source

The bottom line: These numbers shouldn’t be too surprising, as smartphones continue to grow in popularity, and touchscreens make their way into the featurephone segment. Peggy adds: The touch web is here and will likely require content, experiences and mobile search tools to make the most out of it. Watch MSG for more on the touch paradigm and the potential business opportunities for companies that get it right.

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THE NUMBER OF NEW APPLICATIONS STARTED FOR THE ANDROID PLATFORM NEARLY DOUBLED IN OCTOBER, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry. The company, which tracks application and developer activity in app stores and across multiple platforms, says it’s seeing a lot of iPhone developers beginning to work on Android apps.

Android is gaining a lot of momentum as more devices hit the market – particularly in the US, where Verizon Wireless has made quite a splash with its marketing campaign for the Motorola Droid, and is also introducing the HTC Droid Eris. Meanwhile, T-Mobile USA recently announced it would introduce carrier billing and some other measures to try and increase its Android customers’ downloads. Source

The bottom line: Mobile developers will go to where the users are – if the developer and distribution experience is easy and rewarding. Apple and Android are leading the way, while others (notably Nokia’s Ovi and Symbian) still trail behind.

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THE VALUE OF COUPONS REDEEMED VIA MOBILE WILL HIT $6 BILLION WORLDWIDE BY 2014, says Juniper Research. In a new report about mobile coupons and NFC-enabled “smart posters”, the firm says that ARPU from offers from NFC coupons and smart posters will exceed ARPU generated by NFC payments in 5 years.

Juniper says, though, there are some potential stumbling blocks: consumer apathy, lack of willingness to change and consumers having to learn a new payment method. Source

The bottom line: Another confirmation that the mobile device is destined to be a payment device we use at the point of impulse – once we overcome the hurdles, of course. Peggy adds: Look for an in-depth look at this topic and more in the Netsize Guide 2010, a must-read mobile industry almanac available for free download beginning February 2010.

The bottom line: While flat-rate data plans have become more pervasive, and mobile data use has increased, cost still remains a very sticky subject, particularly for content not covered under unlimited data plans. This is a huge issue for operators and content providers looking to increase uptake of mobile content, but the implication is pretty clear: consumers don’t have good pricing information, and they’re hesitant to shell out without it.

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THERE’S A MIDDLE CLASS OF IPHONE APP DEVELOPERS, says mobile apps analytics company Flurry, with them bigger than independent developers, but much smaller than the traditional mobile powerhouses. The company studied the distribution of the most popular games on US carrier decks and in the Apple App Store, and found that the iPhone environment wasn’t dominated by the same big names (EA, Gameloft, Namco, etc.), but rather by smaller, newer developers.

Flurry says the cost of content is a big issue: it notes that in the App Store, EA’s games mostly run from $5 to $10, compared to the $1 to $2 of other more popular games. It also notes that just before it conducted its analysis, Gameloft sliced the cost of its iPhone games to 99 cents; consequently 3 of its games leapt into the top 25 list. Source

The bottom line: Once again, these figures show how price-sensitive consumers are when it comes to mobile content. The question for the likes of EA, though, falls back to that wonderful economic concept of price elasticity: by cutting the price of a $5 game to $1, will they get 5 times as many buyers? It’s hard to get a read on that from Flurry’s data, but anecdotally, it seems that users have a much easier time paying the mental transaction cost of a 99-cent app, and the lower price tempts a lot more curious buyers.

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SIXTY-TWO PERCENT OF MOBILE VIDEO USERS SPEND MORE TIME ON THE MOBILE INTERNET than they do surfing the internet on their PCs, according to a survey from mobile video delivery company Transpera, compared to just 9 percent of people who don’t watch mobile video. There’s a wide gap in other usage stats between users and non-users of mobile video, making it clear that those who do use it are heavy mobile users in general.

There’s also some good info for potential mobile video advertisers: the company found that mobile video users eat out more, travel more and tend to earn more money than non-users. Of course, if these users are out of their home or traveling more often, and cost isn’t a concern, they might be expected to use mobile services more heavily. Source

The bottom line: Clearly people using mobile video are early adopters and heavy users of mobile data services. This is great and makes them a good target for advertisers, on one hand, but on the other, expresses that use of mobile video is still far from mainstream.

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THE MOBILE WEB ISN’T JUST LIMITED TO SMARTPHONES, browser behemoth Opera says. In its latest State of the Mobile Web report, the company says served over 10.4 billion pages to the 26.5 million users of its Opera Mini browser in June, up 8 percent over May. It reports the top ten countries for Opera Mini use in the month were Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, U.S., U.K., Poland and Nigeria, with India overtaking China last month. Source

The bottom line: Opera Mini remains a popular way for feature phone users to get online, and coupled with the use of operator-provided transcoding services, as well as good old carrier decks, remind us that browsing the mobile web isn’t limited to the likes of the iPhone and other high-end devices. Users of simpler devices remain a huge and viable audience for mobile content providers and advertisers.

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MOBILE DATA PLANS ARE ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS CONSUMERS LOOK TO CUT when they hit budget problems, says research from Strategy Analytics. It found that almost half of Americans surveyed said they’d drop mobile data completely if they needed to cut household costs, a far greater percentage than mobile voice, fixed voice, digital TV or broadband internet.

The bottom line: While mobile data use grows, it’s still viewed largely as a luxury item, rather than a necessity. Just 10 percent of people said they’d drop their fixed broadband completely, showing just how important it has become to people – meaning mobile data has a long way to go.

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TEXT, VOICE, THEN MOBILE WEB are the most common features used daily by UK mobile subscribers, says Lightspeed Research. But the gap between text and voice, and mobile web remains pretty huge: About half of those surveyed send a text every day, while a little more than a third make a call each day; but just 9 percent use the mobile web every day. Source

The bottom line: While mobile web use continues to grow, as we’ve seen from multiple data points today, there’s still a lot of room for growth and several obstacles remain. For advertisers, a bigger audience would be beneficial, so what can be done to help to grow that audience? There’s the Blyk model (documented in Peggy’s in-depth analysis), which looks to offer free service to users in exchange for ads, but perhaps other sponsorship opportunities exist. Vodafone’s “free internet days” have generated a lot of interest and usage, and these sorts of offers could represent a sponsorship opportunity.