Gangnam Style by Psy is the first video to hit one billion views on YouTube

"A million views? You know what's cool? A billion views.
Today, a 34-year-old K-Pop artist made online video history when his viral video, Gangnam Style, smashed our records and became the first video ever to reach one billion views. Yup, that’s right one BILLION views!
PSY's success is a great testament to the universal appeal of catchy music-- and er, great equine dance moves. In the past, music distribution was mostly regional. It was more difficult to learn about great artists from around the world. But with a global platform at their fingertips, people are now discovering and sharing amazing music from all over the planet, by artists like Brazilian Michel Teló and Belgian-Australian Gotye.
One billion views is an incredible number, but the PSY-nomenon goes beyond that. Check out these stats:
PSY was already big in Korea, but in 2012, he became a global celeb as Gangnam Style quickly spread from Seoul and the pacific to North America, South America, and Europe. It’s been seen at least 1 million times in close to 75 countries, making it one of the most global music sensations ever!
From a one-thousand person flash mob in Jakarta to cover videos from Ai Weiwei and Mitt Romney, hundreds of thousands of parodies have been uploaded to YouTube, some of which have tens of millions of views. In fact, fan tributes to Gangnam Style are now being viewed 20 million times every single day.
PSY's own remix with Hyuna has 200 million views alone.
"Gangnam Style" was YouTube's top rising search of 2012 and on October 6th, we saw more than five million searches for “gangnam style” in a single day. Check out this video demonstrating some of our most popular YouTube searches this year.
For those interested in the business side: a number of assessments and projections have been posted claiming “Gangnam Style” has generated over $8.1 million in advertising deals, hit more than 2.9 million in song downloads since July, and achieved other incredible feats!
Since late last month, people have clicked to buy the track on iTunes over 600,000 times helping make PSY the first Korean artist ever to rank #1 on the U.S. iTunes chart and #1 in over 30 more countries.
Perhaps what’s most impressive about this feat is that it took just over five months to happen."

Source:  YouTube blog, 21st December 2012
Earlier - It became the most viewed video of all time in late November
Earlier - 100 million views in the first 50 days (5th September)

Percent of internet users who access via mobile devices

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Source:  Research by Ofcom, conducted in September 2012, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Note - This is based on 'generally' accessing the internet, so not 'ever' or 'in the last month' but 'regularly' 

Mobile & tablets as a percent of all internet access in 2012

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Source:  comScore data, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Take up of connected TVs and 3D TVs in 2012

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Source:  Research by Ofcom, conducted in October 2012, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Take up of DVRs in 2012

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Source:  Research by Ofcom, conducted in October 2012, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Take up of HDTV in 2012

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Source:  Research by Ofcom, conducted in October 2012, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Media activities done regularly in 2012

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Source:  Research by Ofcom, conducted in September 2012, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Ownership & personal use of media devices in 2012

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Source:  Research by Ofcom, conducted in September 2012, reported in The Ofcom International Communications Report, December 2012

Online ad revenue rose to $9.26 billion in the US in Q3 2012

"Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. reached $9.26 billion for the third quarter of 2012, making the quarter the biggest on record, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report figures released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC US. These figures show an 18 percent climb year-over-year, in comparison to Q3 2011’s $7.8 billion. In addition, they mark a 6 percent increase over the Q2 2012 figures of $8.72 billion."

Source:  Press release from the IAB, 19th December 2012

Google receives 2.5 million copyright removal requests per week

"As policymakers evaluate how effective copyright laws are, they need to consider the collateral impact copyright regulation has on the flow of information online. When we launched the copyright removals feature, we received more than 250,000 requests per week. That number has increased tenfold in just six months to more than 2.5 million requests per week today. While we’re now receiving and processing more requests more quickly than ever (on average, within approximately six hours), we still do our best to catch errors or abuse so we don’t mistakenly disable access to non-infringing material."

Source:  Google Policy Blog, 11th December 2012

See the regularly updated chart here

Twitter stats from the final of The X-Factor 2012

"While the viewing figures for yesterday’s X Factor final were down compared to 2011 the use of Twitter throughout this year’s series has increased significantly. Here are a few Twitter facts and figures about this year’s X Factor UK:
There were 1,126,802 tweets about the show during the final.
The Tweets per minute peaked at 28,377 during the final show.
It is estimated that there have been more than 14 million tweets about the show this year.
#XFactor has been used over 3.5 million times since the start of the 2012 series.
Over the course of the series #Jahmene/@JahmeneDouglas has been used 769,220 times.
Over the course of the series #JamesArthur/@JamesArthur23 has been used 2,066,318 times.
#Rylan/Rylan/@RylanClark has been used a total of 3,576,431 times during this year’s series compared to being used 38,306 times in the same time period just before the start of the series.
The biggest peak in tweets per minute was 49,000 when the two favourites James Arthur and Ella Henderson were in the bottom two.
Gary Barlow’s remark about Tulisa’s “fag ash breath” was mentioned nearly 45,000 times on Twitter on the day of that episode.
James Arthur (@JamesArthur23) now has 1,122,209 followers on Twitter.
Jahmene Douglas (@JahmeneDouglas) now has 481,943 followers on Twitter.
Rylan (@RylanClark) now has 489,918 followers on Twitter."
Source:  Stats collated by Carat UK, reported in their blog, 10th December 2012
See also - Tweets per minute during the X-Factor Final 2012

The two most retweeted tweets of 2012

"Here are the top two Tweets that generated the most Retweets for the year, plus honorable mentions for a few other Tweets that caught attention around the world.
Barack Obama  @BarackObama
“Four more years”
6th Nov 12 - 810,000+ Retweets, 300,000+ Favorites
Justin Bieber  @justinbieber
“RIP Avalanna. i love you”
26th Sep 12 - 220,000+ Retweets, 100,000+ Favorites
Team GB  @TeamGB
“29 gold, 17 silver, 19 bronze - We finished 3rd in medal table after most successful Olympics for 104 years #OurGreatestTeam RT your support”
12th Aug 12 - 67,000+ Retweets  5,000+ Favorites
TJ Lang  @TJLang70
“Fuck it NFL.. Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs.” (Most re-tweeted NFL post)
24th Sep 12 - 98,000+ Retweets, 28,000+ Favorites
@yamachanoha
“…I would like to announce here: I, Koichi Yamadera, have married Ms. Rie Tanaka … I am really happy to have met such a great partner and have our lives come together. We made up our minds to respect each other, help each other and build a home full of smiles…” (Translated from Japanese - this was the most retweeted post in Japan)
17th Jun 12 - 68,000 Retweets, 6,000 Favorites"
Source:  Twitter's review of 2012, December 2012

27% of American Pinterest users claim to have bought a product as a result of seeing it on someone else's board

"The Social Habit research of American social media users shows some pretty staggering insights. A few highlights:
Usage of Pinterest is already nearly as large as LinkedIn with 21% having a Pinterest account versus 26% on LinkedIn
More than half of Pinterest users visit the site each day.
We could be seeing just the tip of the iceberg for Pinterest’s growth. 38% of U.S. social media users plan to use Pinterest more often
70% of the site’s users are women and 64% of the site’s fans are under the age of 34. In fact, Pinterest is the third-most widely-used social network for women 18-44 (behind Facebook and Twitter).
The most popular pins?
Food
Arts & Crafts
Fashion
Interior Design
Family-Related Content
Photography
Here’s the big one: 27% of Pinterest users have purchased a product as a result of seeing it on someone else’s pinboard."

Source:  Data from The Social Habit (I haven't heard of them either), reported by Business Grow, 6th December 2012

Call of Duty: Black Ops II generated $1 billion in sales in 15 days

""Call of Duty: Black Ops II," the latest installment in Activision Blizzard Inc.'s best-selling video-game franchise, topped $1 billion in retail sales within its first 15 days of release.
The sales figure, which relies on Chart-Track retail data, means "Call of Duty" reached $1 billion faster than the movie "Avatar," the record holder for feature films, Activision said today in a statement.
It also hit a billion dollars faster than last year's "Black Ops" -- by one day.
"Since 'Call of Duty' was launched, cumulative franchise revenues from players around the world are greater than current worldwide box office receipts to date for the top 10 grossing films of 2012 combined," Activision Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick said in the statement. "Sales for the 'Call of Duty' franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars,' the two most successful movie franchises of all time.""

Source:  AdAge, 5th December 2012

More than 3 times more smartphones than PCs were sold in China in Q3 2012

"According to the latest IDC Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the PRC smartphone shipments reached a record high and broke past the 60 million unit mark in 2012 Q3, over three times more than PRC PC shipments in the same quarter. Smartphones shipped to the PRC grew 38% QoQ, far outpacing the 9% QoQ growth of the total mobile phone market."

Source:  Press release from IDC, 7th December 2012

Top Trending Searches on Google 2012

"Whitney Houston
Gangnam Style
Hurricane Sandy
iPad 3
Diablo 3
Kate Middleton
Olympics 2012
Amanda Todd
Michael Clarke Duncan
BBB12"
Source:  Google Zeitgeist 2012
Note - I think by Trending Searches they mean searches that suddenly take off, not the top searches over the whole year.
Diablo 3 is a role playing game from Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft
Amada Todd was a woman who killed herself after suffering online bullying
Michael Clarke Duncan was an American actor who died in September
BBB12 = Big Brother Brasil

Facebook Trends for 2012 in the UK

"Most Talked About
1. London 2012 Olympics
2. Fifty Shades of Grey
3. Rylan Clark
4. Death of Whitney Houston
5.The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
6. One Direction
7. The Avengers
8. Goodbye Blue
9. YOLO (You Only Live Once)
10. Usain Bolt

Songs
1. Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye
2. We Are Young - feat. Janelle Monáe - Fun
3. We Found Love - Rihanna
4. Titanium - feat. Sia - David Guetta
5. Too Close - Alex Clare
6. The A Team - Ed Sheeran
7. Wild Ones - feat. Sia - Flo Rida
8. Whistle - Flo Rida
9. Domino - Jessie J
10. Drive By - Train

Check-ins
1. Alton Towers
2. Thorpe Park Official
3. The Trafford Centre
4. Hyde Park
5. Leicester Square
6. Covent garden
7. The O2
8. Buckingham Palace
9. Westfield Stratford City
10. Olympic Village"
Source:  Facebook, December 2012
See other countries, including the US, here

Square is processing $10 billion worth of payments a year

"Just a day after Bank of America announced its own mobile payments service, mobile transactions startup Square said it is now processing $10 billion in annual payments, an increase of $2 billion from two months ago.
“Today we’re processing $10B in payments annually, an amazing and humbling milestone,” it said on Twitter. “To the small businesses growing with Square, thank you.”
Square’s profile has raised quite a bit in the past year, especially after it agreed to handle all of Starbucks’ payment processing, with Starbucks investing $25 million in the business. It also has CEO Jack Dorsey out in front promoting the hell out of the company as he moves further away from his role at Twitter."

Source:  VentureBeat, 14th November 2012

Earlier - $6 billion announced in June 2012

Nearly $620 million was invested in music-related technology companies in 2012

"Anyone who thinks investment in music is 'drying up' clearly hasn't looked at the numbers.  Because with less than two weeks left in 2012, investment in music-related startups and companies has reached $619.3 million, a near-34 percent gain over 2011.
Spotify wasn't the biggest catch, either.  Deezer claimed a monstrous $130 million round, while Sonos received a handsome $135 million in financing.  Those rounds, coupled with Spotify's $100 million, accounted for roughly half the total pot."

Source:  Digital Music News, 17th December 2012

The most downloaded songs and albums of 2012 on iTunes

"Songs
1. Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe"
2. Gotye, "Somebody That I Used to Know"
3. fun., "We Are Young"
4. Maroon 5, "Payphone (feat. Wiz Khalifa)"
5. Nicki Minaj, "Starships"
6. One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
7. Kelly Clarkson, "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"
8. fun., "Some Nights"
9. Flo Rida, "Whistle"
10. Flo Rida, "Wild Ones (feat. Sia)"

Albums
1. Adele, 21
2. Taylor Swift, Red
3. Mumford & Sons, Babel
4. One Direction, Up All Night
5. fun., Some Nights
6. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
7. The Lumineers, The Lumineers
8. John Mayer, Born and Raised
9. Maroon 5, Overexposed
10. Jason Aldean, Night Train"

Source:  Data from iTunes, reported by Digital Music News, 18th December 2012

Hulu generated revenues of nearly 700 million in 2012

"We are closing on a big 2012. On behalf of the Hulu team, I would like to share some of our results. We’re so thankful to our customers and for the trust they place in us each day, which is enabling us to deliver the below results.
Revenue. In 2012, we will close the year with approximately $695 million in revenue. Hulu’s revenues will have grown over 65%, which is an acceleration over 2011 growth levels.
Hulu Plus. We have more than 3 million paying Hulu Plus subscribers. The number of Hulu Plus subscribers has more than doubled over the past year.
In 2012, Hulu Plus was released on Apple TV, Nintendo Wii and Wii U, Windows 8 tablets, and a slew of new Android tablets and phones. Hulu Plus can now be accessed from more than 320 million Internet connected devices in the U.S. (not including laptop and desktop computers). We released next generation user experiences—to great response—across the web, on gaming consoles, and on Android tablets and phones.
Content. Throughout 2012, we aggressively grew our Hulu and Hulu Plus title offerings by over 40%, making us an increasingly valuable partner for our three customers (viewers, advertisers and content partners). We now have more than 430 content partners, providing over 60,000 TV episodes, 2,300 TV series, and 50,000 hours of video on Hulu and Hulu Plus. In 2012, we invested more than $500 million in content. Since the launch of Hulu in October 2007, we have generated over $1 billion for our content partners.
One of the highlights from our 2012 content investment is the launch of Hulu Kids on Hulu Plus. With this launch—and our expanded content partnership with Viacom—Hulu Plus has become the only online video subscription service with current season content from Nickelodeon. Hulu Plus now offers current season episodes from more than 235 of the most popular television series on TV in the U.S., and over 40 series on TV from across the globe…something no other online video service offers. We launched more than 25 Hulu Exclusive and Original Series combined, and signed new agreements with the likes of CBS and WWE, just to name a few. We are extremely proud of the TV series we released in 2012, and are excited about the slate of original series and exclusive series coming to Hulu in 2013.
Advertising. Our advertising mission is to be the world’s most effective video advertising service, and we are well on our way. We continue to expand the number of advertisers we serve. In 2012, we served more than 1,000 advertisers, 28% more than last year. Our advertising service consistently sets the standard in online video advertising, including our practice to only charge advertisers when their ad has been streamed through completion.
Hulu Japan.  Our subscription service in Japan continues to ramp.  Our content offering has quadrupled over the past 12 months. Hulu Japan is now accessible from more than 50 million Internet connected devices in Japan (not counting laptops or desktop computers), thanks to releases on Apple TV, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, and over 40 Android mobile phones and tablets in 2012. As a result of the above inputs, we are attracting paying subscribers to the Hulu service in Japan at a volume that is more than triple our December 2011 levels."

Source:  Hulu blog post, 17th December 2012

Twitter has more than 200 million active monthly users

There are now more than 200M monthly active @twitter users. You are the pulse of the planet. We're grateful for your ongoing support!
— Twitter (@twitter) December 18, 2012

Source:  Tweet from @Twitter, 18th December 2012
Earlier - 140 million announced in March 2012

Google Maps for iOS 6 was downloaded more than ten million times in two days

"More than 10 million downloads in less than 48 hours after release!
We're excited for the positive reception of Google Maps for iPhone around the world. Congratulations to the Maps Team on the recognition for the passion and hard work they poured into it, for this release and over the last 7+ years."

Source:  Post on Google+ by Jeff Huber of Google

55% of mobile users in the big 5 markets in Europe have a smartphone

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Source:  3 month rolling data from comScore MobiLens for 3 months to October 2012, reported in a press release, 17th December 2012

Games account for an estimated 80% of the $10 billion app market value

"Apps are big business, and the biggest app business is games.  In 2012, Flurry estimates revenue earned from apps will approach $10 billion, with games taking over 80% of the pie.  The free-to-play business model (aka freemium), where consumers download and play the “core loop” of a game for free, but then pay for virtual goods and currency through micro-transactions, is the most prolific business model in the new era of digital distribution.  When it comes to app consumption on iOS and Android smart devices, consumers spend over 40% of all their time using games.
The most successful companies in the new mobile economy, from Electronic Arts to Zynga and Mobage to Supercell, deeply understand consumer behavior differences by game genre.  This level of understanding greatly informs a company’s app acquisition, retention and monetization strategies. In this report, Flurry examines the consumer behavior differences by app usage, retention and demographics for the top nine freemium game genres in mobile gaming.  For this analysis, Flurry leveraged a sample of more than 300 million consumers using iOS and Android games each month. Please note that, for consistency, we include only free titles."

Source:  Estimates from Flurry, reported in their blog, 13th December 2012

Apple sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in China in the first three days

"Apple® today announced it has sold over two million of its new iPhone® 5 in China, just three days after its launch on December 14. iPhone 5 will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of December, making it the fastest iPhone rollout ever.
“Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products.”"

Source:  Press release from Apple, 17th December 2012

Twitter had 'around 300' advertisers in the UK in 2012

"Twitter has compiled a top-10 list of the best promoted product campaigns by brands on the platform this year, based on a combination of data including total engagements, reach and impressions.
[...]
Twitter started serving ads in the UK in September last year. This year it ran around 300 campaigns in the region.
Top 10 UK Twitter Campaigns
@EE, brand launch campaign, by MEC (October)
@StarbucksUK, #FreeStarbucks campaign, by Mannigottlieb OMD (March)
@Puma, Usain Bolt's 100 metre final campaign, by Zenith Optimedia (August)
@DairyMilk, sample giveaway for puzzle solvers, PHD (September)
@EASportsFifa, to promote the launch of Fifa13, MediaCom (September)
@EnterTheCabinUK, Lionsgate promotion for launch of the film 'Cabin in the Woods' by MEC (April)
@CokeZone, #freecocacola trend, by Carat (September)
@AdidasUK, Olympics closing ceremony campaign, by Carat (August)
@NowTV, Sky’s launch campaign, by MediaCom (August)
@AssembleLive, Disney Pictures promotion for launch of The Avengers movie from Disney Pictures, by Carat (April)"

Source:  Marketing Magazine, 13th December 2012

10 Trends for 2013

My new presentation is now on Slideshare.  (It's one of the reasons I haven't been posting much here in the past few days).  I'm planning on doing a review of last year's trends, and also a post about each of the trends over on my Digital Examples blog, explaining my thinking a bit more.

10 Trends for 2013 from Dan Calladine 

Half of all app store revenue goes to just 25 developers

"Apple's App Store and the Google Play store each claim to offer over 700,000 apps to choose from, but only a tiny fraction of them bring in significant revenue for their developers, according to research from analyst firm Canalys.
In fact, the company says, of the $120m in total revenue generated from paid app downloads and in-app purchases in the US during the first 20 days of November 2012, fully half was split between just 25 developers.
All but one of those top 25 earners were game developers, including Disney, ​Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Glu, Kabam, Rovio, Storm8, and Zynga, among others.
On average, Canalys found that 145 of the top 300 apps in the Apple App Store were games during its sample period, while the format accounted for 116 of the top 300 apps on Google Play.
The one exception on the top-earners list was Pandora, which markets the popular Pandora Radio app for its personalized music service.
In most of the other cases, however, Canalys found that the top-selling game makers managed to dominate the charts by offering multiple products through the app stores at once, to strengthen their respective brands."

Source:  The Register, 4th December 2012

Spotify has 5 million paying subscribers

"Spotify took the wraps off a set of improved discovery features tonight at its ‘What’s Next’ press event, while revealing a spate of stats on its growth, and bringing Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Napster co-founder Sean Parker together, in friendship, at last.
Stats first: Spotify now has more than 5m paying subscribers, with 1m of those in the US. CEO Daniel Ek claimed that Spotify is now the biggest subscription music service in the US – something that may ruffle feathers at rival Rhapsody, which announced its own 1m milestone in late 2011.
Ek also said that Spotify has now paid out $500m to music industry rightsholders. ”Spotify pays back nearly 70% of all the money that we get in to rightsholders,” said Ek. “We’ve now paid out more than half a billion dollars, and that’s doubled in the last nine months.”"

Source:  Musically, 6th December 2012

Earlier - 3 million announced in January 2012

The number of local businesses advertising on Facebook has doubled since January

"The following new numbers were pushed out today by Facebook’s PR firm to coincide with Dan Levy’s session at the BIA event in LA. Levy is Facebook’s point person on SMB initiatives now.
Here are the new figures:
The number of Local Business Pages advertising on Facebook has nearly doubled since January
Active Local Pages have increased over 40% since January
150M people visit Facebook Pages every day, and news feed is not the only way they’re getting there; in the US, nearly half of these visits are happening on mobile
Over 300,000 Pages have promoted over 2.5M posts since Promoted Posts for businesses launched in June; over 25% of the businesses are new advertisers on Facebook
75% of daily Promoted Posts advertisers are repeat customers
Since we launched the Pages manager app six months ago, over 3M Page owners are using the mobile admin app to advertise on the go"
Source:  Screenwerk, 6th December 2012

Half of Facebook & Twitter's US visitors come via mobile devices

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Source:  Press release from comScore, 29th November 2012
Note 1 - Mobile includes tablets
Note 2 - This is mobile web access. not via apps

Downloads from Amazon's app store have risen 500% Y-o-Y

"Amazon’s App Store is becoming more popular and is in high demand these days. Amazon is striving hard to become a strong competitor in the Android tablet game, and a big part of that is the success and achievement of its own Appstore. The company made an announcement in a press release about a new developer product, that the downloads from its mobile app store have increased by a massive 500 percent in the last year. This shockingly huge number has put it into discussion. However, Amazon didn’t quantify an exact figure on the number of applications downloaded, as the company is intentionally vague about sales and usage numbers."

Source:  The Droid Guy, 7th December 2012

Tweets per minutes during the X-Factor Final 2012

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Source:  Tweet from @SecondSync on Sunday 9th December 2012:
"That last @JamesArthur23 performance caused the biggest peak in Twitter engagement of the night so far"

7 million people played The Simpsons' mobile game 'Tapped Out' in October 2012

"More people played the 'Treehouse of Horror' edition of 'The Simpsons: Tapped Out' than watched the Halloween episode on TV in the U.S.
"The Simpsons: Tapped Out," EA's "freemium" game for iPhone and iPad that has users building their own Springfields with characters and tasks closely tied into the show, attracted 6.93 million players in October for its "Treehouse of Horror" update, according to EA. That's more than the 6.57 million U.S. viewers who watched the "Treehouse of Horror" episode on TV.
EA and "The Simpsons" have previously partnered on a number of mobile games, including titles that predate the launch of the App Store as well as "The Simpsons Arcade" for Apple's operating system. But "The Simpsons: Tapped Out," which requires a web connection to play, is the only live-service mobile game tied to a hit prime-time show.
"Tapped Out" puts players to work rebuilding Springfield from scratch after Homer, distracted by his "MyPad" from his work at the nuclear-power plant, causes a meltdown. Users can speed the process with doughnuts either earned by completing tasks or bought with real money. Prices range from a dozen doughnuts for $1.99 to 2,400 doughnuts for $99.99.
Players have used more than 3.1 billion doughnuts in the game, most of which were bought with real money, according to Steve Stamstad, VP-marketing for EA Mobile and Social Publishing. He declined to say how much money players have spent to buy doughnuts."

Source:  AdAge, 7th December 2012

52% of US smartphone-related searches happen before launch

"Product upgrades, and having the latest and greatest devices are top reasons consumers purchase new smartphones. Google has been following smartphone launch trends since 2010. We found that search predicts smartphone sales, with over 90% accuracy. In this 2012 Smartphone Launch Predictor study, we uncovered several tips to forecast product success. Here is a sampling:
An extra 1,000 news stories in the weeks before launch will likely lead to a 9% boost in smartphone sales. Marketers should generate buzz for extended interest: Maximize press and marketing efforts early.
A whopping 52% of purchase-related searches occur before launch (and over one third of general smartphone searches). Marketers should reach customers earlier in the pre-launch period.
An extra 25,000 mobile searches will likely increase smartphone sales 17%. One month after launch, those searches boost sales 20%. Marketers should make sure to connect across screens, throughout the launch cycle."
Source:  Google's Smartphone Launch Predictor Study, November 2012
Note - Download the full pdf at the link

Smartphone subscriptions by Market Q4 2012

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Source:  Taken from KPCB's Internet Trends 2012 presentation, 3rd December 2012
Note - other figures are avaialble - for example comScore say that the UK has a smartphone penetration rate of over 50%

Mary Meeker's Internet Trends December 2012

2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Lots of great stats, especially in the first half

The first text message was sent on 3rd December 1992

"The first text message was sent on 3 December 1992, when the 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth used his computer to wish a "Merry Christmas" to Richard Jarvis, of Vodafone, on his Orbitel 901 mobile phone. Papworth didn't get a reply because there was no way to send a text from a phone in those days. That had to wait for Nokia's first mobile phone in 1993.
The first text messages were free and could only be sent between people on the same network, but in 1994 Vodafone – then one of only two mobile networks in the UK – launched a share price alert system. The arrival in 1995 of the Tegic (aka T9) system, which created "predictive" texting based on the letters you had typed, meant texting could take off.
Commercial services soon followed, and though they started life as a free service – because operators hadn't figured out how to charge for them – it was quickly realised there was money to be made from texting as the number rose dramatically. By February 2001 the UK was sending one billion texts a month, which at the standard 10p-a-text charge meant the business was raking in about £100m a month.
The amount of data in a text message is tiny, at just 128 bytes. Charged at the same price per byte, a 650MB music CD would cost more than £60,000."

Source:  The Guardian, 2nd December 2012