Android is closing in on 50% share of U.S. smartphones, according to the latest data from comScore. The Google mobile platform expanded its presence to 47.3% of handsets in the fourth quarter, up from 44.8% the prior quarter. Apple’s iOS picked up about 2 percentage points in the last three months of 2011 to reach 29.6% market share, still well behind Android. Other competitors continued to lose ground, with BlackBerry dropping from 18.9% to a 16% share, Windows Mobile/Windows Phone, slipping a point to 4.7%, and Symbian shrinking to just 1.4%. That’s getting close to extinction. Overall, 97.9 million …

Horizon Media has named Ramond Romero vice president-digital media activation. He joins from Omnicom's OMD unit where he was group director-U.S. digital on the PepsiCo account.

Three of the six most awarded TV commercials in the world last year were created by Wieden + Kennedy, according to the Gunn Report's annual award compendium. W+K's Amsterdam office created two of the top three awarded spots, including first place Nike's "Write the Future," and Heineken's "The Entrance," which tied for second with Saatchi & Saatchi's "Welcome Back" ad for T-Mobile. W+K's Portland office created the 4th-ranked spot, for Old Spice Body Wash, "Questions/Boat." Tied for fifth place were ads for Google Chrome ("Speed Tests") from BBH/Google Creative Lab, New York and Volkswagen Passat, "The Force," from Deutsch LA/Lowe …

Forget the big game, the Tweet Meet is back. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School will host its second annual “Super Bowl Ad Tweet Meet" as part of its Future of Advertising Program. The event will include academics and ad experts weighing in with instant opinions about this year’s crop of $4 million Super Bowl spots. Participants will included Brandon Berger, chief digital officer, Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather (@brandonberger), trend guru Faith Popcorn (@FaithPopcorn), and Regan Ebert, Vice President of Marketing, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (@ReganEbert). A new twist this year is a live rating of ads by panelists during …

A new ChangeWave study shows the proportion of Kindle Fire owners doubled to 6% in January from the prior month, buoyed by strong holiday sales. The finding was based on a survey of 2,607 North American consumers. Amazon hasn’t revealed the number of Kindle Fire tablets sold, but said sales of Kindle devices overall tripled during the holiday season. Nevertheless, the company missed fourth quarter revenue estimates and at least one Wall Street analyst indicated Kindle Fire sales fell short of his estimate of 5 million in the quarter. The ChangeWave survey also compared the attitudes of Kindle owners …

Mobile ad network Mojiva laid claim Thursday to having the ability to serve ad on more than one billion unique devices globally each month. The company said it serves more than 45 billion ad requests in 190 countries and reaches approximately 224 million unique devices monthly in the U.S. In the United Kingdom it serves 33 million; Germany, 10.6 million; France, 5.5 million: Spain, 6.4 million; and Italy, 8.7 million. Research firm eMarketer estimates marketers will spend $2.61 billion in the U.S. on mobile campaigns this year.

Kodak's bankruptcy means extra marketing and brand enhancing deals could be stopped  -- including a long-term naming pact for a Hollywood, Calif. theater where the Academy Awards event has been held in recent years. The film producing company, which recently filed for Chapter 11, wants to stop its $4 million a year naming rights deal with the CIM Group,  developer of the mixed entertainment/retail mall called Hollywood & Highland where a venue called the Kodak Theater has held the Oscar awards event in recent …

The speculation is over. Facebook Wednesday filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $5 billion in a deal that could ulimately value the social network at an estimated $75 billion to $100 billion. Though less than the $10 billion rumored, the transaction would still be by far the largest IPO ever by an Internet company, easily eclipsing the $1.9 billion raised by Google in 2004. The $5 billion is also seen as just a preliminary fund-raising target that Facebook could expand to the expected $10 billion to meet investor demand.  Morgan Stanley will lead the IPO with …

Mobile ad firm Flurry Wednesday announced support for HTML5 through its branded analytics tool that helps developers and publishers monetize apps. The company’s service already plugs into major smartphone platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7.  “Flurry is committed to supporting developers across any platforms they adopt,” said company CEO Simon Khalaf, in a statement. “While overall demand for HTML5 remains nascent, there is strong interest among traditional media companies, a group to which Flurry is highly committed.” In that vein, major publishers such as The New York Times, Meredith and Conde Nast have committed to HTML5 …

Yahoo is partnering with Disney Interactive on its latest video show starring comic actress Ali Wentworth. The new series called “Daily Shot with Ali Wentworth” will comprise 3-5 minute episodes featuring Wentworth givng parents an patiche of news, celebrity gossip and sports headlines from her kitchen table and on location. Like Yahoo’s other recent video offerings, the show debuting today on Yahoo Screen is geared to a female audience.  Produced by Disney, “Daily Shot” will also take advantage of Yahoo’s trove of user data to inform topics covered by the show. Yahoo will then run the show in relevant parts …