30m NFC-enabled phones were sold in 2011

"According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global sales of handsets featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) increased ten-fold in 2011 to 30 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87.8 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 700 million units in 2016. The global rise in smartphone adoption is also driving higher attach rates for other wireless connectivity technologies in handsets including GPS, Bluetooth and WLAN. These connectivity technologies are already a standard feature on high-end smartphones and most medium- and low-end models. Declining costs will also enable broader integration in the featurephone segment that is rapidly gaining smartphone-like functionality. The attach rate for GPS among GSM/WCDMA/LTE handsets reached 31 percent in 2011 and grew to 38 percent for all air interface standards. Shipments of WLAN-enabled handsets have more or less doubled annually in the past four years and the attach rate increased to 33 percent in 2011."

Source:  Press release from Berg Insight, 26th March 2012

Earlier - 35m NFC-enabled phones were shipped in 2011.  Alternative (& not necessarily contradictory) figures from IMS Research

Chrome was the world's most used browser on March 16th

"It may only have been for a single day, but according to StatCounter Google Chrome finally managed to surpass Internet Explorer to become the world’s most used web browser.
On Sunday, March 16th, Chrome temporarily slid ahead of IE with a share of just over 32%. Weekends have historically seen a downturn in IE usage. As people wind up their work week and spend more time on their home computers, they’re more likely to use an alternative browser. IE still maintains a dominant position in corporate environments, but that too has begun to change.
Over the past year, Chrome has steadily climbed while IE continues to fall. Initially folks thought that Google’s rapid rise was being fueled by Firefox defections, but Mozilla has only seen a drop of about 5% — while IE is down more than 10%. A second chart from StatCounter tells the story: those IE peaks and plateaus are clearly on a downward trend.
It’s important to note that StatCounter doesn’t correct its usage figures to account for one detail that could skew the numbers slightly in Google’s favor. Speculative pre-rendering (which arrived  in the Omnibox in Chrome 17) and Instant Pages support (which appeared in Chrome 13) both cause Chrome to send additional traffic to web servers that may never result in an actual visit from a user."

Source:  Geek.com, 22nd March 2012

Mobile game Cut The Rope has been downloaded more than 100m times

"Global gaming company ZeptoLab today announced the release of its award-winning, physics-based game, Cut the Rope, in the Mac App Store. The game, which has been optimized for MacOS, features stunning high-resolution artwork and innovative game mechanics that have been optimized for computer gameplay.
With more than 100 million downloads, Cut the Rope has seen great success on both mobile phones and tablets. Now, with the MacOS version, players take on the challenge of cutting ropes, popping bubbles, collecting stars and feeding candy to a little green monster named Om Nom on a much bigger screen. The levels on Cut the Rope for MacOS have been specifically tailored for landscape screen orientation, and the game retains its striking, crisp images on monitors up to 2560×1440 resolution."

Source:  Press release from ZeptoLab, 22nd February 2012

People who engage with social media while watching TV watch more live TV as a result

"A new study from iModerate Research Technologies, a leading qualitative research firm, shows the tremendous impact Social TV, the act of connecting with people via social networks while watching television, has on viewing. The hybrid, qualitative-quantitative study with males and females who engage in Social TV at least once a week uncovered that 58% of heavy engagers (more than 10 times a week) watch more live TV because they need to be part of the conversation in real-time. According to the study, Social TV has also made these viewers into more active consumers and influencers. To that end, a third of respondents said their primary reason for engaging in Social TV was either to give feedback to the television network or show support for their television program."

Source:  Press release from iModerate Research Technologies, 26th March 2012

Facebook refers nearly as much traffic to The Guardian as Google does

Click to enlarge

Source:  A chart used during a speech by Tanya Cordrey of The Guardian, reported by Journalism.co.uk, 21st March 2012
Note - see the full article for more stats & background

Angry Birds Space was downloaded 10m times in 3 days

10 million Angry Birds Space downloads in less than 3 days! Thanks to our fans, stay tuned for more! #angrybirdsspace
— Angry Birds (@AngryBirds) March 26, 2012

Source:  Tweet from Angry Birds, 26th March 2012

American Express' twitter campaign generated an estimated 160,000 tweets and $7.2m in spend on the cards

"A campaign launched by American Express in the first week of March on Twitter has generated some eye-brow raising numbers.  Called Tweet Your Way to Savings, the campaign asks AmEx cardholders to tweet #AmEx hashtag in order to receive a deal the cardholder is marketing. The savings are automatically applied with the purchase.
Visibli Social Analytics, which has been tracking the #AmEx hashtags since the campaign launched on March 6, reports that the campaign has generated so far a total spend of approximately $7.2 million and discounts of $1.4 million, roughly. There have been 160,707 tweets, or approximately 259 tweets per hour."

Source:  MarketingVox, 16th March 2012