Worldwide smartphones sales to end users outstripped those of feature phones for the first time in the second quarter, growing 46.5% to 225 million. Feature phone sales, by contrast, increased only 21% to 210 million, according to new data from Gartner.    Smartphones accounted for 51.8% of all mobile phone sales, with Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe showing the highest growth rates. Android was again the dominant operating system across smartphones in the quarter, with 79% market share. iOS was a distant second, at 14.2%, followed by Windows Phone, with 3.3%.  

Mobile ad network Millennial Media is acquiring rival Jumptap in a primarily stock-based deal, Millennial announced Wednesday. Under the deal, Jumptap shareholders will receive 24.6 million shares in publicly-traded Millennial, giving them ownership of about 22.5% of the company. Started in 2005, Jumptap to date has raised $122 million in venture backing and its network spans an audience of 100 million profiles. "Millennial Media already runs one of the largest third-party digital media businesses, despite …

That's what BitTorrent's Matt Mason just posted on BitTorrent's blog unveiling plans to do TV pilot development business. "Today's viewer is as much a contributor as a straight-up content consumer. Reddit shapes plot lines. Twitter is a writers' room. American Idols are chosen via text. Youtube is our film school. Is series development something that should be open-sourced? What if you opened up the pilot process to the people of the Internet?," he wrote, adding, "What if a TV series started acting like a startup?" The post announced that BitTorrent is partnering with Converge Studios to "find out." "Our latest …

Facebook on Monday said it has acquired Mobile Technologies, which specializes in speech recognition technology and makes the Jibbigo voice translation app. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Voice technology has become an increasingly important way for people to navigate mobile devices and the web, and this technology will help us evolve our products to match that evolution. We believe this acquisition is an investment in our long-term product roadmap as we continue towards our company's mission,” …

NBCUniversal just announced three key appointments to its digital advertising sales organization. Phil Cara joins as senior vice president-digital entertainment advertising sales, overseeing sites such as Fandango and E! Online. James Kreckler has been promoted to the same title, responsible for NBCUniversal's entire portfolio. Aaron Radin joins senior vice president, partnerships & portfolio products, a new position the entire NBCUniversal portfolio, which includes more than 50 digital properties in entertainment, sports and news reaching more than 100 million monthly unique visitors, as well as two broadcast networks-Spanish and English language-and 18 cable networks.

Following a competitive pitch by International Airlines Group (IAG), both British Airways and Iberia this morning named Carat its new global media shop. The accounts, which are effective in October and November, respectively, covers both airlines' global media planning and buying - with separate teams working on each account independently. British Airways head of marketing, Abigail Comber, stated: "We would also like to take the opportunity to thank Zenith Optimedia, Kinetic and Neo@Ogilvy who have made a huge contribution to our business to date." Iberia's head of Marketing, Carolina Martinoli, stated: "We're very grateful for the work our current media …

Instagram on Wednesday released the latest version of its photo- and video-sharing app, allowing users to upload videos from their media library. Instagram 4.1 also adds a feature that straightens crooked photos in the iOS version, and extends the Android app to those using an older version of the operating system. After introducing video-recording on Instagram last month, the company is adding the ability for people to import existing video clips from their phone’s library, trimmed to fit its 15-second limit. “We’ve also made it so that you …

Android tightened its grip on the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter, with nearly eight in 10 devices shipped in the period running the Google operating system. Android’s 79.3% share was up from 69.1% in the year earlier period, while Apple’s iOS shrank from 16.6% to 13.2%, according to the latest data from IDC. The research firm cited Apple’s lack of a new iPhone launch this spring as a key reason behind its declining market share. Windows Phone, meanwhile, increased its share in the quarter to 3.7% from 3.1%, and BlackBerry continued to lose ground, falling to 2.9% …

Yahoo’s logo is getting an update for the first time in its two-decade history. The new look will be promoted over the next month through a series of designs the company will display on its Tumblr and Facebook pages each day before unveiling the official new logo on Sept. 4. The refresh will retain the exclamation point and the color purple, but “be a modern redesign that’s more reflective of our reimagined design and new experiences,” according to a blog post today by Yahoo CMO Kathy Savitt. The symbolic step follows the overhaul of Yahoo’s …

More than half (52%) of U.S. smartphone owners had Android-powered handsets in the second quarter, according to the latest data from Nielsen. Another 40% had iPhones (running iOS), and the rest was split among BlackBerry, Windows Phone and “other” smartphone operating systems. Among manufacturers, Samsung represented the biggest share of Android phones, with 24%, followed by HTC and Motorola, each with 9%, LG, 7%, all others, 2%, and Huawei, 1%. Apple’s share of the smartphone market has increased from 34% a year ago following release of the iPhone 5. “Those gains came at the expense of smaller manufacturers …