iOS

The iPad event by the numbers

A round-up of Apple's latest milestones 

No company is better at telling its story with nice round numbers than Apple (AAPL). Here, in the order they arrived, are the numbers it trotted out at Wednesday's iPad event:

362 Apple Stores
110 million customers in Q4
315 million iOS devices sold
62 million in Q4 alone
25 billion iOS apps downloaded
100+ million iCloud customers
15.4 million iPads sold in Q4
200,000+ apps designed for iPad
100+ competing tablets came to MORE

And the prize for Best App Ever (2012 edition) goes to ...

The results of the "People's Choice" app award are announced at Macworld|iWorld

A record 1.5 million votes were cast earlier this month in the fourth annual Best App Ever contest, more than three times as many as last year. Created in 2008 by 148Apps -- a smartphone app-tracking website named after the maximum number of apps that could be installed on Apple's (AAPL) original iPhone -- its purpose, according to founder MORE

Smartphone wars: Apple won the quarter, Samsung the year

A pair of reports agree -- more or less -- on the current state of the battle

Two reports published Thursday -- one by IHS iSuppli, the other by Strategy Analytics -- describe the global race for smartphone supremacy as high-stakes see-saw.

Basically what happened is that Apple (AAPL) took the lead from Nokia (NOK) in June, lost it to Samsung in September and won it back in December.

"Apple's introduction of the 4S in the MORE

Impact of the iPhone 4S launch was 'enormous,' says Nielsen

Between October and Christmas, Apple's U.S. sales nearly caught up to Android's 

Three findings stand out in Nielsen's December survey of the U.S. mobile phone market, released Wednesday:

Among recent smartphone buyers, 44.5% of those surveyed in December bought an Apple (AAPL) iPhone, up from 25.1% in October
57% of new iPhone buyers said they chose the iPhone 4S over the less expensive iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS
Android's lead among recent buyers nearly MORE

NPD: iPhone surged, Android slipped in Oct. and Nov.

Apple's (AAPL) share of the U.S. smartphone market nearly caught up to Google's (GOOG) Android in the first two months of the fourth quarter, according to a new report from the NPD Group.

Apple's market share jumped from 26% in Q3 to 43% in October and November while Android's fell from 60% to 47%.

Underscoring Apple's strength going into the holiday sales period, the company had the three best-selling smartphones -- the MORE

Android vs. iPhone: Hare and tortoise?

Google's U.S. market share continues to grow against Apple, but at a much slower pace

"In case you needed more proof that Android is walloping iOS," writes Steve Kovach in Thursday's Business Insider, "ComScore's three-month report on mobile subscribers (ending in November) is out."

He points out, as others have, that Apple's (AAPL) smartphone market share grew a bit, from 27.3% to 28.7% over the past three months. But, he writes, "Google's Android platform is MORE

Apple vs. Android: Who won the X-mas bake-off? (update)

If you count the iPad and iPod touch, it looks like iOS by about 1.6 million units

Without a press release from Apple (AAPL) crowing about their Christmas sales, we're forced to rely on data from a mobile analytics firm and tweets from a Google (GOOG) senior vice president to make some rough guesses.

Here's what we know:

According to Flurry Analytics -- which claims it can detect "roughly 100%" of all new smartphone and tablet MORE

Today in Tech: Why TVs are cheapest they've ever been

Fortune's curated selection of tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you each and every day.

* Thanks to oversupply and competitive pricing, TVs are the cheapest they've ever been. It's a situation that's causing major problems for retailers and manufacturers, including significantly lower profits, and in Sony's case, forcing the Japanese company to overhaul its TV operations. (The New York Times)

* Google+ gained 12 million users this month, bringing MORE

Chart of the day: Tomorrow's richest smartphone markets

Using data from 140,000 smartphone apps running on devices all over the world, Flurry Analytics has created a fascinating series of graphs showing ...

Which countries have purchased the most Apple (AAPL) iOS and Google (GOOG) Android devices
How many people in each country can afford a smartphone but haven't yet purchased one
Which countries are the most mature (in terms of smartphone penetration)
Finally, the chart above, showing where the future market opportunities MORE

Millennial Media measures a small but real iPhone 4S effect

iOS edged back up against Android in November, gaining 8% in Millennial's ad network

There's a small but measurable iPhone 4S effect in November's Millennial Media's Media Mix, which reports the presence of various devices in the mobile advertising network it runs.

Apple (AAPL) was the No. 1 manufacturer in Millennial's advertising platform, up 8% since October to gain a 26% share in the list of the top 15 manufacturers.

Meanwhile, in Millennial's monthly pie MORE