On the heels of announcing a major mobile push with “Places,” Facebook announced today usage numbers for its various mobile apps — namely iOS, Android and Blackberry.

A big reason Facebook Places was such a big deal in the LBS world was Facebook’s massive installed mobile user base.  To give a glimpse of that user base, Facebook indicates there are nearly 105 million active monthly iPhone users.  This is truly impressive given the fact that Apple themselves said only a few months ago that they were approaching 100 million total iOS users.  If this is true, it could indicate nearly every iPhone user is using the Facebook app, though that’s doubtful and some obvious variables exist in the figures.

While its iOS app is by far the most widely used, BlackBerry comes in second with 60M total active users using the Facebook application, which is impressive as well.  On the Android front, Facebook indicates an installed user base of roughly 12 million, which seems low, but remember the Facebook app for Android has always left a lot to be desired when compared to its iOS brethren.  With these figures, it’s no wonder why Places is only natively available in the iPhone app, though the others are coming.

According to new data out from mobile analytics firm Bango, Android continues its surge in mobile Web browsing market share at the expense of Apple, who’s seen its share decrease by over 16 percent between the first and second quarters of 2010.

Apple showed the slowest quarterly volume growth of just 13 percent, while the volume of mobile web browsing from Android phones in the US grew by 400 percent for the same period.  On the device front, HTC and Sony Ericsson showed the largest volume growth of mobile web visits in the US with an increase of 162 percent and 148 percent respectively.  This represented a growth in market share between quarters of 94 percent and 84 percent.

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RIM has been busy lately trying to bolster its position in several categories, with a primary one being its App World platform.  To further its technology, the company has acquired Cellmania — a platform provider of “mobile storefronts.”

According to CrunchBase, Cellmania “drives mobile ecosystems for mobile operators, infrastructure providers and content owners.”  Cellmania’s primary product “mFinder” provides infrastructure on either a licensed or hosted basis to allow digital rights management of downloaded content onto mobile phones, subscription billing, time and location based content management and billing integration onto customer bills.

As a provider of innovative technology that powers app stores and the mobile commerce that flow through them, it’s a perfect fir for RIM who’s trying to bring its BlackBerry App World out from the shadows of Apple’s App Store and the Android Market.

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RIM today issued an update to its BlackBerry App World that includes some added bonuses for consumers, but takes a larger cut of ad-revenue away from developers.

On the consumer side, RIM is slowly adding much better billing options, including direct credit card payments and carrier billing to the mix.  In addition, it’s also lowering the minimum price to 99 cents and $1.99 per app from a much higher minimum of $2.99 before.  The addition of carrier billing will be a huge milestone, as it’s always been the preferred method of payment from a consumer point-of-view.

RIM said today that AT&T will be the first carrier to support carrier billing and others will start to support in the coming months, but it will be up to the carriers to announce.  The addition of better payment options will help induce higher revenue potential for Blackberry developers, but RIM also announced today that the revenue split will move to a 70/30 model instead of the previous 80/20.  This is the same model both Android and Apple use, but RIM had long been admired for giving such a generous revenue split.

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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal today, Blackberry-maker RIM is in the market for a mobile advertising acquisition of its own.  Those close to the matter indicate RIM has been in talks with Millennial Media, a leading independent ad-network, though it’s still speculation at this point.

According to those familiar with the negotiations, RIM has reportedly been in talks with Millennial over the past few months, but largely put it to rest after neither party could agree on a sale price.  Reports indicate Millennial has asked for between $400 million and $500 million, though RIM has backed down saying both Google and Apple overpaid for their respective acquisitions of AdMob and Quattro Wireless, and they don’t intend to do the same.

Millennial is unlikely to sell according to an interview with its CEO from early August with The Wall Street Journal.  Millennial Chief Executive Paul Palmieri said that the company hopes to make a public offering of shares rather than be acquired.  ”We are on the path of being an independent company,” he said.

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On the heels of Amazon announcing impressive sales figures for the Kindle following a rather hefty price cut and the fact that Kindle books now outsell hardcovers, the company today announced that customers are now ordering more than $1 billion worth of products per year via mobile devices.

The company has made a valiant effort in terms of giving mobile users access to its products — launching apps for the iPhone, Android devices, the iPad and Blackberries — and the attention has definitely paid off.  “The leading mobile commerce device today is the smartphone, but we’re excited by the potential of the new category of wireless tablet computers,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a statement.  ”Over time, tablet computers could become a meaningful additional driver for our business.”

The company has seen major traction with its recently introduced iPad-optimized version of its iPhone app, and now offers Kindle on every major platform in addition to bringing Amazon Payments to third-party mobile apps.  Amazon Payments is the company’s PayPal alternative, which should be well placed in its growing mobile strategy.  The underlying message here is that consumer willingness towards mobile commerce and making purchases via mobile devices is higher than ever, signaling a shift that’s been long awaited.

As you likely already know, it’s all about location in the mobile world these days.  GPS is the primary driver in determining one’s location, but it doesn’t always prove reliable inside buildings or areas without a clear and unobstructed view of the sky.  Because of this, other technologies are used as back-ups, especially as nearly every mobile service and app utilizes location in one form or another.

One such technology is cell tower triangulation, or the act of measuring the distance between a device and the nearest cell towers to determine an accurate position.  As long as the device maintains a radio signal, a rough estimate of the device’s location can easily be acquired.  It’s the same technology that’s long been used in emergency services and E911 to locate a cell phone, but was historically reserved for use only by carriers.

RIM announced today that it’s included this functionality through its Blackberry API, allowing developers to use cell tower data when grabbing location for their apps.  The BlackBerry Developer’s Blog details how the geolocation service works and gives some examples of how it can best be utilized.  The service can even be used in apps that require a higher degree of location accuracy by showing users approximate locations while querying for a more accurate spot via GPS.  As the blog post notes, this could have a huge impact on speed and user experience.

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