A major contributor to the fast-changing nature of smartphones in India is the explosion of Google’s Android onto the scene. The tremendous growth of Android since entering India last year has it taking the leadership position in terms of shipments last quarter. A Nielsen Informate panel found smartphone users in India spending more than 40 percent of total active time on their smartphones on data-centric activities. A full 25 percent of users’ time with apps is spent on those developed by Google, with the Android Market, YouTube and Gmail leading …

Advertisers and those aiming to reach smartphone and tablet users on their devices should look no further than free apps. According to Nielsen’s Consumer Usage Report, 51 percent of consumers say that they are okay with advertising on their devices if it means they can access content for free.

Internet access in Hong Kong has become near-ubiquitous, as 87 percent of consumers there have used the Internet in the past year, outpacing neighboring markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

A new report provides a snapshot of the current mobile media landscape and audiences in the U.S., and highlights the potential power of mobile commerce in the near future.

Facebook and apps from Google like Gmail and the Android Market are the most popular smartphone apps among Android owners according to Nielsen’s latest research on smartphone usage.

In the U.S., 71% of those with smartphones own either an Android device or an iPhone. But when it comes to smartphone apps, iPhones and Android smartphones are even more dominant: 83 percent of app downloaders, that is, those who downloaded an app in the past 30 days, use iPhone or Android smartphones.

According to the first mobile media rankings based on audience measurement data from metered smartphone usage, aside from the Android Market app itself, Facebook, Google Maps and Gmail were the most used among U.S. Android users 18 years and older.

According to first-reported data from Nielsen Smartphone Analytics, a new effort that tracks and analyzes data from on-device meters installed on thousands of iOS and Android smartphones, the average Android consumer in the U.S. spends 56 minutes per day actively interacting with web and apps on their phone.

With more consumers using smartphones and connected devices like the iPad, there is no avoiding the importance of mobile apps. Apps are responsible for 56 percent of all smartphone activity according to data shared by Jonathan Carson, CEO of Telecom at Nielsen, during Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference.

According to Nielsen’s latest survey of mobile app downloaders, that is, consumers who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days, if you want to understand the consumer landscape for mobile apps, you have to understand the Apple iOS and Google Android ecosystems.