“When you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership,” the warning from Apple reads.

The warning came in response to a growing number of claims that shady marketing practices and purpose-driven technologies are falsely inflating app store rankings via erroneous, repetitive download schemes.

In order to maintain the integrity of the App Store and its ranking system, Apple says it will clean house and not hesitate to remove anyone who tinkers with the legitimate established processes that determine an app’s rightful ranking in the App Store.

The study found that Google Android strengthened its lead in the smartphone market during the period to capture a 47.3 percent market share.

All told, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices during the three-month period ending in December.

97.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in December, representing 40 percent of all mobile subscribers.

Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 20 percent share and Motorola with 13.3 percent share.

Apple, comScore found, continued to gain ground in the OEM market with 12.4 percent share of total mobile subscribers (up 2.2 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.7 percent share.

To check out the comScore MobiLens service for yourself, click here.

As the mobile world gears up for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Inneractive decided to take a look back at the continued massive growth of the industry in terms of everything from mobile ad clicks to revenue, platforms, and regions that saw the most growth.

The full infographic is embedded below, and also available here.

Based on the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global tablet shipments reached 27 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. As a result, Android claimed a record 39 percent global share.

Still, Apple held on to a 58 percent market share, although that once sizable lead continue to diminish.

“Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, surging 150 percent from 10.7 million in Q4 2010,” says Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics. “Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains strong. Apple shipped a robust 15.4 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 58 percent share during the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple shrugged off the much-hyped threat from entry-level Android models this quarter.”

Other findings from the research show that global tablet shipments reached 66.9 million units in 2011, surging 260 percent from 18.6 million in 2010.

“Consumers are increasingly buying tablets in preference to netbooks and even entry-level notebooks or desktops,” the report reads.

Additionally, Microsoft captured a niche 1 percent global tablet share in Q4 2011.

“The upcoming release of Windows 8 this year cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft,” the research firm concludes, “so its hardware partners can start competing more effectively in the tablet space.”

Led by Georgian Partners, the new funding round adds to the pile of more than $3 million invested to-date from private investors. The cash will make it possible for Polar Mobile to roll out MediaEverywhere, a new product line that will “transform the media industry.”

MediaEverywhere is an HTML5-based solution to distribute media content in a multi-device environment, including smartphones, tablets and desktops. It will include support for both app-centric and browser-based media consumption and enable Polar’s media customers to create, design and manage custom user experiences in-house. MediaEverywhere will decrease customers’ development time and increase their opportunity to monetize their content.

“Polar transformed how media companies deliver content to smartphones and tablets by providing a turnkey, cloud-based software platform for the rapid deployment of feature-rich native applications”, said Kunal Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Polar Mobile. “We are thrilled to have the backing of Georgian and now it is helping to accelerate the launch of our next-generation software platform, MediaEverywhere.”

For Polar, there couldn’t possibly be a better time to more aggressively pursue expansion opportunities in the digital media space. Gartner reports that more than 440 million devices were sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2011. Of that total, 26% were smartphones, for a total of 115 million new devices in market.

According to the latest information and analysis provided Tuesday from IHS Screen Digest, the best way to make money in the smartphone apps market is to give the apps away for free-and and then generate revenue on subsequent sales of in-app purchases.

The new projections published today from IHS show that in-app purchases will rise to account for 64 percent of total market revenue in 2015, up from 39 percent in 2011.

Revenue from in-app purchases will increase to $5.6 billion in 2015, up from $970 million in 2011, according to the IHS Screen Digest Mobile Media Intelligence Service.

“Smartphone users overwhelmingly prefer free apps to paid apps, as we estimate 96 percent of all smartphone apps were downloaded for free in 2011,” noted Jack Kent, senior analyst, mobile media for IHS. “In 2012, it will become increasingly difficult for app stores and developers to justify charging an upfront fee for their products when faced with competition from a plethora of free content. Instead, the apps industry must fully embrace the freemium model and monetize content through in-app purchases.”

IHS Screen Digest calculates that 68 percent of the top-grossing U.S. applications featured some form of additional content or functionality available via an in-app purchase.

Do you have as much faith in the business model of in-app purchases as all the analysts and mobile experts do? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

According to the findings of a new IDG Connect Report, 91% of worldwide IT and business professionals use their iPad for work communication.

12% of respondents admit that their iPad has fully replaced their laptop, while more than 50% say the tablet has partially replaced their laptop.

The results also show stark changes in content consumption, and provide evidence that B2B marketers should tailor information to the tablet medium:

•  97% of professionals use the iPad for reading
• 70% + now buy fewer physical books and newspapers
• 72% of iPad owners carry their laptop less

The survey revealed a robust loyalty to Apple with 83% globally stating they would not consider buying a different tablet device next time.

“This research shows the tablet is fast becoming a true work device, provided by employers and used in the office for business communication,” says Kathryn Cave, editor at IDG Connect International. “It also highlights some startling regional variations, emphasizing the need for marketers to adapt content to local markets as well as new mediums.”

Are you an iPad user who now depends less on your laptop as a result? If so, please share your experience with a comment below.

Judging from the lofty language used by the company to announce the arrival of its new solution, it’s apparent that Digby really digs the platform.

Through powerful web-style analytics into shopping activities at a brand’s physical locations and effective, targeted location-aware mobile messaging tools, Digby Localpoint enables brands to attract, influence, understand and own the relationship with their loyal customers across all channels.

In describing how it all works, Digby says Localpoint enables brands to create geo-fences around their stores and other points of interest and embed those geo-fences into the brand’s app. Digby then leverages its patent pending technology to measure app engagement and events such as geo-fence entries/exits, store visits, UPC/QR Code scans and other key shopping oriented events triggered through the app as the consumer visits the store and uses their smartphone to find and research products to enhance their in-store shopping experience.

Localpoint can be added to a current branded app through a Software Developer Kit (SDK) or in a rich application developed by Digby.

“Multichannel retailers in particular should recognize that they need a twofold objective with their smartphone presences: enabling sales, but also serving store shoppers,” says eport author Sucharita Mulpuru, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. “Because the primary use cases of mobile devices are to support multi-channel experiences (e.g., finding more product information in stores, identifying store locations), it is imperative to include multichannel sales influence in any mobile ROI estimates.”

But the mobile channel has been used by a wide array of companies within the hospitality and theme park industries to revitalizing the still-struggling brands with which we are all familiar.

According to an announcement made Thursday, SkyWire Media, Inc. – a leading global mobile solutions provider – revealed a new strategic partnership with the latest prominent water park company to embrace the moble channel.

SkyWire says it’s now working with KeyLime Cove, a world class, award winning, tropical themed waterpark resort and family fun spot that offers a what the organization calls a “complete year-round resort vacation experience.”

KeyLime Cove has selected the SkyWire Media Rooms Connect solution to provide a rooms ready alert and marketing Opt-in service to guests at their popular resort, located just north of Chicago in Gurnee, Illinois. This service will allow early arriving guests to do a partial check in while they wait for their room to become available. An SMS text message will automatically notify the guest when the room enters a “Ready” status in their PMS (Property Management System).

“We are pleased to partner with SkyWire Media to provide our guests with convenient notifications on their smartphones,” said Dale McFarland, general manager of KeyLime Cove. “Although our check in time is 4 p.m., we have always invited guests to arrive as early as 1 p.m. on the day of their arrival to start enjoying the resort. The new “Ready” status allows guests an added convenience of knowing the exact time their room is available.”

Do you believe mobile technologies and their associated conveniences and marketing powers can help waterparks regain lost traction from the recent economic downswing?

Donahoe revealed that eBay reached $5 billion in mobile GMV and PayPal reached $4 billion in mobile payment volume in 2011.

More than 890,000 new eBay shoppers made their first eBay purchase through the company’s mobile apps in 2011, a 113% increase year over year.

“EBay is continuing to drive the next generation of commerce in a new retail environment, where lines between online and offline commerce are blurring,” a statement from eBay read following the presentation.

Donahoe is projecting that in 2012, eBay will reach $8 billion in mobile GMV and PayPal will reach $7 billion in mobile TPV.