First in a monthly series of slide decks focusing on 10 new pieces of research relevant to the mobile and tablet apps industry: analyst forecasts, consumer surveys and other useful datapoints. It's the work of The Appside, a new service covering what brands, entertainment companies and startups are doing with apps. More information and signup details at www.theappside.com

1. AppsideDataPoints: September 2011 www.theappside.com

2. Who, What and Why? This monthly slide-deck focuses on 10 stories from the last month with useful data on the apps space. It’s compiled by The Appside. We write about what brands, entertainment companies and startups are doing with apps, as well as relevant technologies. You can sign up for our daily bulletin for free: here’s an example of what to expect. We also do consultancy, training and are planning some premium reports. www.theappside.com

3. Media tablet sales Analyst firm Gartner predicts that 63.6 million media tablets will be sold in 2011, with Apple’s iPad taking a 73.4% share of the market. Those overall sales are up 261.4% on 2010, when Gartner thinks 17.6 million tablets were sold. By 2015, it claims the annual figure will be 326.3 million media tablets. Gartner thinks Apple will account for more than half of all media tablet sales until 2014. It claims 11 million Android tablets will be sold in 2011 for a 17.3% market share. More information 01 www.theappside.com

4. Android app revenues 02 The average paid Android app had made $2,437 from sales by the end of August 2011 according to research2guidance. Its report suggested that the most lucrative category was Weather, averaging more than $21,000 in sales for every paid app. Business apps were around the $16,000-per-app mark. Nearly a quarter of Android apps are games, yet the paid ones are only making around $5,000 each on average. The company suggests that many categories have lower averages due to the popularity of free alternatives. More information www.theappside.com

5. Android app downloads to overtake iOS? 03 Analyst firm Ovum thinks global mobile app downloads will increase by 144% this year to 18 billion, generating $3.7 billion of paid revenues. Its report also claims that Android app downloads will overtake iPhone for the first time: 8.1 billion and 6 billion respectively this year. Ovum expects the gap to widen to 21.8 billion Android app downloads and 11.6 billion iPhone downloads by 2016. However, it thinks the positions will be reversed in terms of paid app revenues: $2.86 billion of iPhone app revenues in 2016 versus $1.5 billion for Android. More information www.theappside.com

6. Global differences in app stores 04 Globally, an average of 27% of the most popular iPhone apps are only popular in one country, claims analytics firm Distimo. It analysed app stores around the world, finding that the US iPhone App Store has the most local-exclusive apps: 7,158 iPhone apps were only available in the US at the time of the report. In Japan, 67% of the most popular apps are only popular in that country. For China, the figure is 56%. Some countries overlap though: the US, UK, Australia and Canada share 54% of top applications, versus the storewide average of 33%. More information www.theappside.com

7. Freemium game spending by generation 05 Analytics data from 20 million players of freemium games on iOS and Android indicates that ‘Gen Y Plays, but Gen X Pays’. Flurry’s report found that 13-17 year-olds account for 22% of the time spent playing these games, but only 5% of the in-app spending. 18-24 year-olds take 32% of the time, but only 16% of the spending. By contrast, 25-34 year-olds spend 29% of the time but 49% of the money in these games, while 35-54 year-olds spend 14% of the time and 28% of the money. Why? Young people have more time to play, so are less likely to spend in order to avoid the ‘grind’. More information www.theappside.com

8. Freemium game spending by gender 06 Another piece of research from Flurry focused on the differences between men and women when spending money in freemium mobile games. The sexes aren’t too unequal when it comes to time spent playing: 53% for men and 47% for women. But men spend 58% of the money, compared to 42% from women. Men spend an average of 31% more per transaction: $15.60 versus $11.90. Among 25-34 year-olds, men outspend women by 37% per transaction. More information www.theappside.com

9. Social location check-ins 07 Only 4% of US adults are checking in using social location services like Foursquare, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. However, when you separate out smartphone owners, the penetration rate of these services is a fairly healthy 12%, given their relative newness. The report also digs into use of other mobile location services, claiming that 23% of US adults use their phones to get directions or recommendations – this rises to 55% of smartphone owners. More information www.theappside.com

10. UK online publishers are hot for apps 08 42% of online publishers in the UK see iPad and tablet apps as their primary platforms for paid content, rather than their websites, according to a survey conducted by the Association of Online Publishers. Four in ten publishers think mobile internet development and apps are the most significant trend of the next 12 months, while 94% of publishers think iPad and tablets are an opportunity in that period. AOP suggests that publishers are very enthusiastic about advertising opportunities on these platforms, including sponsorship deals and new mobile ad formats. More information www.theappside.com

11. Social media usage on phones 09 37% of US social media users are accessing these services from their phones, according to Nielsen. Its survey found that 60% of app-downloading smartphone owners in the US are using social networking apps. Facebook is the most popular, as you might have guessed. For these downloaders, Social is the third most popular app category, behind only Games (67%) and Weather (65%), but ahead of Music (45%) and News (42%) among others. 3% of US social media users are accessing these services from iPads, not that far ahead of e-readers (2%). More information www.theappside.com

12. Android fuelling NFC growth 10 40% of all new handsets will have Near Field Communication (NFC) technology built in by 2015, claims a report by Informa Telecoms & Media. It anticipates shipments of NFC handsets to grow from nearly 44 million in 2011 to more than 630 million by 2015. Three quarters of the latter number are expected to be Android smartphones. Informa thinks that more than $2.4 billion of NFC payments will be made in 2011, rising to more than $71 billion by 2015. In that time, the percentage of payments made in Asia Pacific will drop from 90% to around 40%. More information www.theappside.com

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