The bathroom is a popular place to use a mobile phone according to the results of a new study. ”The writing is on the stall,” says Nicole Burdette of 11mark, the firm that conducted the survey. ”This study confirms what we all know – that the last private place is no longer private. And, that the ‘mobile-everywhere’ phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.” 63% of those surveyed said they have initiated a phone call while using the bathroom and 3...

Usage of Apple’s iPhone slid more than 4 percent in December despite what analysts estimate will have been a huge month in Apple’s biggest-ever quarter of sales. Advertising network Chitika on Friday published its smartphone vendor usage share data for the month of December as measured by traffic across its network. Apple’s iPhone showed the biggest slide last month but Apple was still the most popular vendor by a wide margin with a 49.62% share. Chitika also recently reported that iOS’...

Microsoft’s desktop Windows operating system was the only major platform to show usage gains in November according to new data released on Tuesday. Using impressions served to desktop and mobile platforms to calculate market share, advertising network Chitika found that Windows gained 1.4% between October and November to climb to a 76.45% share. Apple’s Mac OS stayed in the No.2 spot but slid 0.35% to a 9.33% share, and iOS dropped 0.04% to a 6.76% share in November. Android dipped 0.58% to 3.93% ...

Beating out popular own-brand apps like Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, Facebook holds the title as the most actively used Android app. Market research firm Nielsen on Monday published the findings of a month-long study to determine the most-used Android apps currently available for the platform. The study made use of Nielsen’s proprietary on-device monitoring software, which has been voluntarily installed by thousands of panelists across the country. Beyond the Android Market itself, F...

Android Honeycomb, first announced by Google at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, is now widely available across dozens of Android tablet models. As Google’s first publicly available operating system developed specifically for media tablets, Honeycomb was hotly anticipated ahead of its unveiling, but end users have seemingly not been impressed by the OS or the slates that have emerged carrying the platform. According to a recent study, Honeycomb tablets account for just 1% of Android usage....

Research In Motion announced last week that it will take a $485 million charge in the third fiscal quarter due to poor sales of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The Waterloo, Ontario-based vendor shipped 500,000 PlayBook tablets to retail partners during the slate’s first quarter of availability and just 200,000 units in the second fiscal quarter. Last quarter, RIM shipped just 150,000 units into sales channels. A string of big sales ahead of the holidays this year is apparently going a long way to clear...

Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet may already be cooling off following a huge launch that likely placed the slate among the most popular media tablets to launch so far. A new study conducted by ad network Chitika found that Kindle Fire usage ramped up at a modest pace following the device’s launch, and then exploded around Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving weekend, however, usage fell off a cliff, dropping more than 85% by November 30th. Read on for more. (more…)

Apple’s iOS platform and Google’s Android operating system both lost usage share in November as BlackBerry and Symbian showed gains. Analytics firm Net Applications on Thursday published its operating system market share data for the month of November, and momentum has shifted quite a bit compared to October. IOS slid more than seven points to drop to a 54% share in November, and Android shed two points to fall to 17%. Android also slipped out of the No.2 spot it claimed from Java ME in October as...

Android topped Millennial Media’s usage share charts for the eleventh consecutive month in October as the smartphone platform landscape stayed completely flat. The mobile ad network served 56% of impressions to Android devices, 28% to iOS handsets and 13% to BlackBerry phones last month, just as it did between July and September according to its third-quarter Mobile Mix report. Apple inched up slightly as October’s top vendor with 23.50% share compared to 23.09% during the third quarter, and HTC s...

Tablet adoption is exploding in the United States and a new study conducted by Pew Research Center shows that 11% of consumers in the U.S. now own tablets just 18 months after Apple redefined the category in March of 2010. According to Pew’s survey of 1,159 tablet owners in the U.S., 77% of them use their tablets daily — about 90 minutes per day on average — and 53% of tablet owners use their slates to read news each day. 67% of owners in the U.S. use their tablets for general web browsing, and othe...

Usage of Google’s mobile platform across the Millennial network doubled iOS in the third quarter according to new data just released by Millennial Media. After representing 54% of impressions served by the mobile ad network in August, Android finished strong to account for 56% of impressions in the September quarter. That figure doubled iOS in the No. 2 spot with 28% during the quarter, and it dwarfed RIM’s 13% share. Symbian accounted for just 1% of impressions and Microsoft’s Windows Mobil...

Windows 7 has surpassed XP as the most widely used operating system in the world according to new data from StatCounter. The operating system now has a 40.21% usage share of the global desktop OS market, compared to Windows XP, which has a 38.64% market share. Windows XP is trailed by Mac OS X and Linux. Microsoft first released Windows 7 in October of 2009, and its versatility and ability to run on everything from low-powered netbooks that were typically powered by Windows XP, to high-powered desktops and bu...

For the ninth consecutive month, Android topped the charts in Millennial Media’s “Mobile Mix” mobile device usage share report. Based on traffic to its mobile ad network, Millennial found that Android’s share of the mobile OS market slid in at 54% for the month of August, almost double the next closest platform. Apple’s iOS climbed to 28% in the No. 2 spot, followed by RIM’s BlackBerry OS at 13%. Android’s usage share was 61% and iOS held a 21% share in July, but the ...

Millennial Media reports a sizable swing in smartphone usage for the first time in several months, with Android usage on the firm’s network increasing from 54% in June to 61% in July. Android’s lead as reported by Millennial’s Mobile Mix report now extends through its eight consecutive month, and Apple’s iOS again finds itself a distant No. 2. While iOS has declined slowly but steadily over the past few months on the Millennial ad network, July saw Apple’s OS drop six points to...