According to mobile analytics firm Mobilewalla — Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 have collectively hit 991,524 apps available in their stores, with the major 1 million app milestone set to be reached within the next week.  This is a significant milestone considering the modern mobile app ecosystem really only got its start in mid 2008.  Further still, the data leaves out apps from platforms such as Symbian, Palm and older Windows mobile apps that would inflate the total even further.  It’s also worth noting that while Android and iOS developers alone have created and submitted more than 1 million apps combined, many of them have been pulled overtime for one reason or another.

Breaking things down a bit further — Apple continues to dominate the market with 59.6 percent, rounding out at 591,428 apps while Android comes in second with 321,020 apps or 32.3 percent of the market according to data from Mobilewalla.  BlackBerry is currently boasting 43,544 apps, good for 4.4 percent of the total, while Windows Phone 7 has 35,248 apps or 3.5 percent.  It’s been reported that Apple’s developers are adding about 1,000 new apps a day while Android developers are uploading about 1,400 a day.

It’s safe to say that 2011 has once again been a breakout year for the mobile app market — just like every year prior for that matter — with the market more than doubling between January 1st and now.  We ended 2010 with roughly 484,000 apps according to Mobilewalla.  The top app categories across all platforms are Entertainment (16.68%), Games (13.36%), Lifestyle (8.02%) and Utilities (7.13%).

The company saw a dramatic increase of more than 240% in mobile barcode scans via its app on Black Friday compared to last year, including a 13% jump in 2D scans over 1D.  Looking deeper at the most popular types of barcodes being scanned, 2D is the front-runner by far with roughly 87% versus just 13% for 1D.  In 2010 for comparison, 74% of scans were 2D versus 26% for 1D codes.

“Retail is going mobile. People are not only using their phones to get more information on goods and services, both in-store and on-the-go, but also to purchase,” said Laura Marriott, CEO of NeoMedia.  ”This year has been a great year for mobile barcodes and we are confident usage will continue to increase over the busy Christmas shopping period. This surge in usage demonstrates growing consumer awareness which will continue to create opportunities for all those in the mobile barcode ecosystem.”

Android was the dominant mobile platform in terms of scans at 53%, according to the company, with IOS coming in second at 27% and Symbian rounding out the top three at 8%.  Retailers are beginning to embrace mobile coupons more than ever, but a vast majority of these implementations are sub-par and don’t work to leverage the inherent benefits of mobile barcode scanning.  While adoption continues to steadily rise, as the numbers from NeoMedia suggest, it could be much higher if brands took the time to integrate codes in a way that not only makes it seamless for the users to engage, but also educates them on how to obtain and use the appropriate scanning apps for example.

If you missed the latest video in 3Seventy’s “MobileMinute” series entitled “Why QR Codes are so Misunderstood and Poorly Executed,” Andy Kennedy discussed this very topic in detail.  It’s definitely worth a read, especially if you have mixed feelings on the state of mobile barcode usage and adoption.

In terms of mobile OEM data, Samsung remains the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.5% total market share, followed by LG with 20.6% marketshare and Motorola with 13.6%.  In terms of mobile operating systems, Android holds on to the number one spot — now sitting at 46.3% total market share.  Apple comes in at second place with 28.1% of the market — up only one percentage point over the proceeding three-month period.  RIM rounded out the top three with 17.2% share, followed by Microsoft in fourth place with 5.4% and Symbian in fifth place with just 1.6%.

Looking at mobile content, 71.8% of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in October — up 1.8 percentage points over the last reporting period.  Mobile Web browsers were used by 44% of subscribers — up 2.9%  – while downloaded applications were used by 43.8% — up 3.2%.  Use of social networking sites and blogs increased 2.2% to 32.3% total, while mobile gaming came in at 29.2% — up 1.4% from the previous period.

The company says it processes more than 8.5 billion mobile pages and content items through its platform each month, and said that between November of 2009 and May of 2011, they averaged 2,872 unique devices requesting mobile sites through its platform.  Of these devices, a total of 10 operating system were analyzed including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Bada, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, WebOS, PalmOS and MeeGo.  Though Android and iOS hold the lion’s share, fragmentation is still a major issue, especially in terms of developing mobile applications for specific platforms.

Things like having various OS versions in the market at the same time, and having various hardware and form factors of devices running the same OS make it extremely difficult to develop and deploy native mobile applications cross-platform.  For these very reasons the argument for HTML5 Web apps has gotten more relevant, but as Netbiscuits details in its report, the adoption of HTML5 is matching its hype.

In looking at the proliferation of HTML5 features on smartphones, the company found that no more than four standard HTML5 features (out of 17) are supported by the majority of the top selling mobile devices, meaning that all the features and capabilities that got people excited about HTML5 aren’t even supported on a large scale just yet.

For much more information, data and visual elements, head on over and download the full 31-page report for yourself.  It’s an extremely detailed report that takes a deep dive into mobile fragmentation and HTML5 support.

The company completed its research by using a sample of over 56 million mobile impressions from devices where both apps and mobile Web browsing were supported.  The results show that while the mobile Web sees more traffic and unique users as opposed to native apps, the engagement is much higher with native mobile apps.  In looking at the survey respondents, 90.15% of all unique users used the mobile Web, while just 9.85% used apps.  The sum of all visits was similar, with the mobile Web seeing 81.66% of all respondents while apps saw just 18.34%.

In looking at mobile ad impressions, 65.39% were shown via the mobile Web while 34.61% came from mobile apps.  While these results clearly indicate a preference for the mobile Web in terms of sheer users, it can’t compete in terms of keeping users engaged.  CEM4Mobile broke down the time spent within a mobile app vs. the mobile Web on three leading mobile OSs — Android, Apple iOS and Symbian.  Here’s the breakdown:

These results fall in the line with the notion that mobile apps are popular right now, and will remain to be for the foreseeable future, simply because it’s what mobile users are most comfortable with and what brands and mobile developers have flocked to since the iPhone made mobile apps the “next big thing” in terms of mobile consumption.  As HTML5 grows in adoption, however, the shift to the mobile Web is inevitable.

Incredibly, 82.2 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the three months ending in July 2011. That figure represents a staggering 10 percent spike from the preceding three month period.

Once again, Google’s Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 41.8 percent market share, up 5.4 percentage points. Apple, however, also gained added traction, boosting its #2 position with 27.0 percent of the smartphone market, up 1.0 percentage point from the prior reporting period.

So if Android and iOS have climbed, that means someone has fallen. Who were the unlucky losers of Q2? RIM, Microsoft, and Symbian.

RIM ranked third overall with a 21.7 percent share, followed by Microsoft (5.7 percent) and Symbian (1.9 percent). All three platforms gave up substantial ground to Android and iOS since the last quarterly reporting period.

The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers over the age of 13.

Dubbed “The Mobile Platform Race,” the infographic (embedded below) contains data sourced from Vision Mobile’s recent “Developers Economics 2011” report.  Some of the data is what you’d expect, such as the fact that iOS, Android and the mobile Web are leading the charge in terms of mobile development these days.  Other data includes platform fragmentation, distribution channels and revenue models.

Click to view full screen:

In total, GetJar now offers roughly 150,000 apps that work across Android, BlackBerry, Java and Symbian platforms, with support for over 2,500 total devices spanning both smartphones and feature phones – the latter of which supporting most of its growth.  In addition, GetJar has gained close to 350,000 developer registrations.  The service places heavy emphasis on social integration and sharing, and announced that it has more than one million Facebook Connect users.  User interest and downloads continue to be highest among games, social & messaging, entertainment, and productivity applications, according to the company.

“GetJar’s social aspects and free business model have been key to our growth, but even more growth is predicted,” said GetJar Founder & CEO, Ilja Laurs.  ”As we’ve seen Android interest increase, we’ve also seen interest in GetJar increase.  With Android exclusives such as Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, GetJar has become an even bigger player in a field of giants and a destination for free Android apps.”

The company’s growth is despite pressure from Apple to lose the “App Store” moniker, even going so far as to send GetJar a cease and desist order to start using alternative terms such as “mobile download service” or “application download service.”  The company isn’t paying much attention to the threats, however, stating on its blog that “”GetJar won’t be subject to this kind of bullying,” according to CMO Patrick Mork.  ”We’re not going to ‘Cease & Desist.’  We were here long before Steve [Jobs, Apple's CEO] & Co. We were built by developers, to help developers. Not to help sell handsets or search results… Steve Jobs isn’t our Dad.”  GetJar has used “app store” in its press releases and consumer marketing efforts since 2009, but does not employ the term in its brand/slogan or strapline.  Regardless of terminology, it seems nothing is going to slow down the company’s growth.

Inneractive

While Nokia doesn’t get nearly the press that Android, iOS and other mobile OSs get these days, the infographic below includes some surprising data points that indicate that Nokia devices are showing impressive growth in terms of mobile ad requests — growing 24.3% in March, 15.3% in April and 12.8% in May.

Most interesting is how Nokia devices compare to the industry average in terms of Click-Through Rate (CTR).  In March of this year, for example, Nokia had an average CTR of 3.85% compared to an industry average of 2.38%.  In May, the difference grew even larger — with Nokia showing an average CTR of 3.32% compared to just 1.88% for the industry at large.  Here’s the full infographic…

Business Insider is citing a Russian blogger with sources close to Nokia who said both companies want the deal to close before the end of the year and are in a “big hurry” to get it done quickly.  Details are limited to say the least, but as the Business Insider notes, they’ve given credence to the Russian blogger after he accurately called the Nokia-Microsoft partnership back in December.

That partnership made Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software the primary OS for Nokia smartphones, and Microsoft would obviously love to make Bing the default search engine for all Nokia devices — given the fact they still own a majority of worldwide feature-phone market share.

We’ve long speculated that changes were on the horizon for Nokia.  Selling its mobile phone business might be the right choice given its trailing presence in the smartphone world, yet its been reported that Nokia’s devices and services division accounts for 68% of the company’s revenue, and all of its profits.  Only time will tell if there’s any truth to the rumors.