• Read Write Web, Wednesday, June 2, 2010 12:27 PM

About 1-in-5 American wireless subscribers -- 21% -- owned a smartphone by the fourth quarter of last year -- up from 19% the previous quarter, and significantly higher than the 14% at the end of 2008 -- according to new data from Nielsen. Meanwhile, 14% of mobile subscribers -- among a pool of 4,200 survey respondents -- reported downloading an app over the last 30 days.

On average, iPhone owners downloaded the greatest number of apps (37), followed by Android owners (22), Palm users (14), Windows Mobile users (13), and BlackBerry users (10). Not surprisingly, games -- both free and paid -- were the most downloaded of apps. On smart phones -- vs. feature phones -- the most popular apps are Facebook, Google Maps and Weather Channel. "The greatest surprise," according to ReadWriteWeb, "is that news barely makes a ding in the apps market, at least according to this study."

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