According to Strategy Analytics, Android secured a 39% share of the global tablet market during the fourth quarter. Although Apple still holds the lead with 58%, Android has gained a considerable share of the market. Microsoft only managed to hit 1.5%, as it only shipped around 400,000 units. Strategy Analytics has also revealed that global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in the fourth quarter, increasing by over 150% from the previous year. 

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, surprised many by announcing a $300 million investment in Twitter, and has recently explained his decision to invest in the micro-blogging site. “Kingdom Holding is not new at all to the internet and tech arena,” he said in an interview with CNN. “We were the first to invest in Apple computers … the first to invest in Amazon and eBay.”

In the interview, Prince Alwaleed denied that the Twitter deal was politically motivated. “It was a pure financial investment with economic objectives,” he said. “Politics has no ingredients whatsoever in that investment … the secure economic financial investment with expected huge returns to our company Kingdom Holding.”

Read More at CNN.com

'The New York Times' for iPad edition has been named the top grossing title on iTunes Newsstand. "We're delighted with the success we are seeing on Apple's Newsstand," said Eileen Murphy, vice president of corporate communications at the New York Times. 'The Daily' came in second, while 'The New Yorker', 'Men’s Health' and 'National Geographic' followed.

Itunes Newsstand is a hub for mobile magazine and newspaper subscriptions that Apple launched in October as part of the iOS 5 release. The popularity of the digital newsstand points to the increasing consumption of content on tablet devices. 

Read More at MobileMarketer.com

According to Web measurement firm Net Applications, Apple’s mobile Safari browser and iOS operating system account for the majority of Web access from mobile devices. For the month of December, Net Applications saw 53% of mobile and tablet access to the Web coming from the Apple Safari browser, 21.66% from the Opera Mini browser, 15.87% from Android, 3.33% from Symbian and 3.05% from BlackBerry. Meanwhile, the iPhone and iPad accounted for 25% each of Web access from mobile/tablet sources, with Java ME devices 21% and Android totaling about 14%.

Read More at MediaPost.com

According to Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis, 300 million people were accessing Facebook via smartphone applications in December. Facebook had previously declared that more than 350 million of its 800 million users were connecting to the service over mobile handsets. However, facebook did not specify how many users were using the application, as oppossed to accessing facebook through a mobile web browser.

According to Evans' analysis, 30% of all Facebook members are using smartphone apps to log in. Evans estimates that 100 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners are accessing Facebook monthly through their apps, while 87.8 million people are accessing Facebook from Android phones. Evans further estimates that android users are using the Facebook app more frequently, as 59.7 million android users are using the app daily.

Read More at MediaPost

According to investment firm Susquehanna, Apple is expected to sell 111.4 million iPhones in 2012. Apple's latest iPhone 4S is the main reason for the increased sales forecast. The new model's popularity was obvious during the first days of the phone's availability, with the handset breaking many sales records. The investment firm had previously predicted that Apple would only sell 104.4 million iPhones.

"The revisions are based on positive sell-through data combined with recent supply-chain checks, which suggests that earlier component constraints have largely been resolved and build plans have increased for the fourth and first quarter," said Jeffrey Fidacaro, a Susquehanna analyst.

Read More at ItProPortal.com

Research firm Nielsen has released its best-of-2011 lists, which include rankings for the top web brands, top social networks and blogs, and top smartphone manufacturers among others. According to the research firm, Google was the "most visited U.S. Web brand", while Facebook "held its lead among social networks and blogs.

Other brands that landed the top spots on the best-of-2011 lists include:

• YouTube- Top U.S. Online Destination for video
• Apple- Top smartphone manufacturer
• Android- Top smartphone operating system

Read More at MSNBC.com

Visit Nielsen.com to view the detailed rankings

According to a study by ComScore, Apple got more traffic online last month than Walmart. According to the study, Apple is the only retailer (other than Amazon and eBay) in the top 15 most-visited websites in the U.S. in November. Apple gets almost as many web visitors as the New York Times, thanks in large part to Apple's music site iTunes. The digital-content store made up about 30% of Apple's unique visitors last month.

Read More at adage.com

Apple is expected to sell up to 30 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2011. The phone has exceeded all fourth quarter sale expectations, and has already broken a number of past sale records. Apple is expected to have its best smartphone quarter ever due to the impressive number of sales. As a result, analysts at investment banks are being forced to revise their sales estimates for the iPhone because of the phone's increased sales projection.

Read More at itProPortal.com