Google’s Android app store has reached 1 billion downloads and is rapidly approaching the total number of 100.000 apps available on the store. Apple is with 5 billion downloads and 225.000 apps on the Apple app store still market leader, but Android catches up quickly. See a GSMA press release for more details here.

For the first time in German history online ad spendings (€4.1 billion) were higher than newspapers’ income from advertising (€3.9 billion) last year.

Consultant Booz&Company expects the worldwide App download market sales to grow to €17 billion until 2013 (income from advertising not included). Market leader Apple is expected to see 2.3 billion on revenue in 2010. See the press release here.

During the last two years 166 newspapers died or stopped their printing edition in the USA (39 in 2008, 109 in 2009, 18 already in 2010). According to an article on the SFN blog there have been nearly 35.000 job losses or buyouts since March 2007.

Pressmart emphasises the growing importance of apps for media companies with some interesting figures on the topic:

·         4.6 billion mobile users globally (70% of the world’s population)

·         3 billion+ apps downloaded from Apple’s app store

·         80% of iPhone users browse the web

·         US$6.2 billion will be spent in 2010 in mobile app stores

·         The Guardian sold more than 70.000 paid downloads of its iPhone app in less than a month

·         Condé Nast’s GQ Magazine sold 12.000 paid downloads of its Jan 2010 issue iPhone app

·         450.000 iPads were sold and 3 million apps downloaded in one week

·         Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs predict that 6 million iPads will be sold in 2010

·         That number is going to double in 2011

Facebook is continuing its rapid global expansion course. A world map of social networks visualises the social network’s dominance. Only China, Russia and Brasil still stick to local social networks; People in most other countries already use FB instead of other networks. See the map here.

Tablet computer sales in the USA will reach 20.4 million in 2015 after 3.5 million this year according to a prediction by Forrester Research. They will then grab 23% of overall US PC sales compared to 6% in 2010. Already in 2012 more tablet computers than netbooks will be sold. See Forrester’s press release here.

Global online advertising will rise by 12.4% during 2010 to US$61.0 billion. From then on it will grow by more than 10% every year to reach US$102.903 billion in 2015. The forecast comes from forecast and analyst institute Magnaglobal.

On May 31^st Apple announced that the iPad had been sold 2 million times since it was launched on April 3^rd. The impressive number therefore was reached in less than 60 days.

On Wednesday, 26^th of May Apple overtook Microsoft as the world’s biggest technology company. Apple then had a market value of US$222 billion compared to Microsoft’s US$219 billion.

According to market researcher NPD Group the Android Operating System has outpaced Apple’s iPhone OS in the American market in Q1/2010 and now holds 28% market share among end customers compared to Apple’s 21%. Clear market leader is still RIM with 36% market share. Although the study does not consider sales to business customers, the gap between number 2 and 3 is significant. See the press release here.

The number of newspapers’ readers per copy has risen over the last three years according to a study by Scarborough Research and Newspaper National Network LP (NNN). The study was conducted among 25 US American printed daily newspapers and found out that the average number of readers per copy increased by 7.5% from 3.07 adults in 2007 to 3.30 adults in 2009. The study also found out that readers of printed newspapers are better educated and have a higher income than the average citizen. See the study’s results here.

Media buyer ZenithOptimedia predicts global advertising to grow 2.2% in 2010 to US $456 billion. In 2011 global ad spending will grow 4.1% and in 2012 5.3%. In 2012 the internet will have a 17.1% share of total global ad spending.

The average daily news consumption in the U.K. increased from 60 minutes (2006) to 72 minutes (2010). Newspaper is still the most trusted medium, 66% describe it as "informative and confidence inspiring" (TV 44%, internet 12%). Although interest in getting news from newspapers has grown especially among young people, the willingness to pay for online news is still at a very low level. This is what McKinsey found out in a survey.

Less than 1% of traffic to newspapers and magazines websites comes from Twitter. Facebook accounts for 1% of all traffic; Google is still the undisputed number 1 referrer. See all results of the survey by Define Search Strategies here.

According to GetJar the global market for mobile apps will reach $17.5 billion in 2012. The study goes hand in hand with Gartner research earlier this year that predicts total revenues of $29.48 billion from App stores in 2013.

According to analytics service Hitwise Facebook outpaced Google for the first time in market share in the United States. In early march 2010 the social network had 7.07% market share while Google had only 7.03%. These figures underline the predicted growing importance of social networks and the increasing influence of Facebook.

A survey* among US citizens says that 26% of Americans use their mobile phone to access news on-the-go. An interesting finding of the survey is that on-the-go news consumers are 50% more likely to read the print version of a national newspaper than other adults.

* The survey has been carried out by Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism in December 2009 and January 2010 among 2.259 US adults.

According to market researcher Nielsen spending on the US advertising market fell $11.6 to $117 billion in 2009, which means a decline of 9%. Ad spending in national newspapers even report a  13.7% decline.