According to Nielsen Analytics, where data is collected from on-device meters installed in smartphones, Android users prefer apps over mobile web. In nearly an hour spent on their smartphone by Android users on average per day, the ratio skews apps to web. Nearly 40 minutes is consumed by apps and 20 minutes is for web usage.

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App Search Engine, Chomp released their latest analytics report that elucidates on app search trends across iOS and Android platforms. They tracked international search data for the first time and it was interesting to note that users from key geographies searched mainly for ‘free’ apps/games, on both iOS + Android.

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Yahoo has acquired 3-month-old automatic TV check-in app creator IntoNow! The iOS app automatically recognizes a show watched by users through its SoundPrint technology and ‘checks-in’ to the show, which the user could share socially. Reports peg the deal to be north of $20M, and the team would join Yahoo to develop the product further.

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Shoutem, whose platform enables anyone to rapidly deploy cost-effective mobile apps, released an infographic tracking the state of mobile apps. The pictorial below captures data points from top app platforms to high rated apps, and everything in between. They state that 5B apps were downloaded in ‘10 and its expected to spike to 21B by ‘13. 

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Jajah’s Android app (iPhone app is on its way) enables you to call any of your online facebook friends, anywhere in the world, for free. Jajah charges you no fee to connect you with your friends. However, your mobile operator may treat it as a local call and could levy appropriate charges. It’s totally free for the receiver who takes the call from within FB.

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Industry group, MobileFuture, captures key data of the mobile industry for 2010 and reflects on the year that was. This near 3 minute video encapsulates data points on mobile apps, location based services, data traffic among other things. They go on to declare 2010 as the ‘year that connected the world’. Check out the video embed below.

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Market research and consulting firm, Parks Associates state that users under 35 tend to skew towards apps than browsers on their smartphones. Younger generation prefer the app experience to the browser experience as a URL need not be keyed in by the users and thus don’t have to contend with perceived slow browser speeds, according to Parks.

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Qype, Europe’s popular user generated review service, raised a combined €6.5 M in second round funding to crank up the velocity on its mobile business. Part funding is from original backers Advent, Partech and Wellington, but new funding to the tune of €3.5M comes from Vodafone. A co-branded version of Qype’s app would be pre-loaded onto Vodafone’s devices for a large chunk of the European market.

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Adobe in conjunction with Omniture released their quantitative study on mobile consumers’ preferences, characteristics, and satisfaction levels across four key consumer categories. The categories encompassed consumer products & shopping, financial services, media & entertainment, and travel. The 1200 U.S citizens sample size response skewed towards mobile web preference in these categories over apps. Apps trumped over mobile web experience in categories such as social networking, music, games and maps.

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Finally, Google Goggles lands on the iPhone, nearly after a year of its launch for Android devices. The visual search feature enables the user to point at an image through the app camera and Google spits back relevant search results. The technology is still in its early days, and currently can recognize only certain kinds of images. The Goggles app for iPhones is now available only on iPhone 3GS & 4 powered by iOS4.0 or upwards.

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