• Apple reported record revenue numbers this week, along with record iPhone and iPad sales.
• As if the App Store isn’t packed enough, 2013 will bring an estimated 435,000 new apps to iOS users – further aggravating discovery challenges for app marketers.
• Across iOS, Android, and RIM, Facebook is the No. 1 app in the U.S., with nearly 86 million unique visitors per month.
• Experts believe 2013 could be a year of explosive tablet growth, as global tablet shipments are expected to reach 145 million. What does this growth mean for mobile marketers?

This week, Apple reported its first quarter earnings, revealing the company sold a record 47.8 million iPhones, 22.9 million iPads, 4.1 million Macs and 12.7 million iPods. In total, some 75 million iOS devices were sold during the quarter. “We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.” AllThingsD has more here.

A recent year-end adeven report forecasts that the Apple App Store will boost its inventory this year. More than 435,000 new apps are expected to launch in the already jam-packed App Store, creating more user acquisition headaches for app developers and marketers. “Growth in terms of App Store size will continue to increase steadily as it has during the past few years, but it also points to a steady climb in the number of apps that fall into its ‘zombie’ category, which accounted for 60 percent of apps in June, but climbed to 64 percent in its most recent tally,” reports Darrell Etherington in TechCrunch. Zombie apps are those that aren't ranked and so have very little chance of being discovered by users.

While the competition is fierce, Facebook sits atop the crowd as the most popular app brand in the U.S., according to comScore. In 2012, the Facebook app enjoyed 85.5 million monthly unique users across iOS, Android and RIM platforms. Of note, Facebook not only has the largest number of users, but also the highest level of engagement. And while Facebook sits at number one, Google apps (including maps, search, and YouTube) occupy slots 2 through 6. Seth Fiegerman of Mashable has more.

New research from ABI Research suggests that 2013 could see dramatic growth in tablet sales. A projected 145 million tablet shipments are set to hit the shelves across the globe this year, meeting the demands of tablet-crazed consumers, reports Mobile Entertainment’s Daniel Gumble. This boost also produces a huge opportunity for marketers. “The concept of mobile advertising started with smartphones but tablets are changing everything, rapidly establishing themselves as universal media players (TV programs, movies, radio, news, magazines) in a way never achieved through ‘personal’ computers,” said Magna EVP and Director of Global Forecasting Vincent Letang to MediaPost. 

• Christmas 2012 saw record iOS and Android device activations, while industry reports show App Store downloads soared by 87 percent.
• Both the Apple App Store and Google Play saw healthy revenue gains in 2012, with more monetization and potential for global growth ahead in 2013.
• 2012 was (finally!) the year of mobile – from the launch of the iPhone 5 to Android device supremacy. But some say we’ll look back on 2013 as the year of the tablet.
• Will Apple unveil a new iPhone in 2013? This is just one of many predictions industry experts are making for the new year.

TheNextWeb reports that Christmas Day 2012 saw a record 17.4 million iOS and Android device activations – or 2.5x more than Christmas Day 2011 – according to Flurry. And new stats from Distimo indicate that daily downloads in the Apple App Store increased by 87 percent on Christmas Day, while revenues increased by 70 percent. This data “supports the common idea that developers should make a point to take advantage of the holiday season by updating and tweaking their apps in the weeks leading up to the 25th of December,” writes TheNextWeb’s Emil Protalinski. The 2012 holidays also marked a turning point in the history of mobile marketing, with more campaigns and shopping conducted on smartphones and tablets than in years past. If you’re interested in learning which holiday mobile marketing strategies worked well this year (and which ones didn’t), we invite you to join our free Mobile Marketer webinar on Jan. 24 – register here.

TechCrunch reports on the latest findings from ABI Research which show that mobile apps hit 43.6 billion downloads worldwide between September 2011 and September 2012, with Apple’s App Store leading the pack. In fact, all the app stores felt the boom of the mobile economy during 2012. Daily revenue in the Apple App Store grew 21 percent in 2012, while Google Play’s app revenue increased 43 percent, reported Steve Smith of MediaPost. Android’s operating system also realized remarkable gains in the latter half of 2012 with its improved user experience and scale of penetration. Device-wise, international growth also surged – the iPhone in Japan, China, and Russia; and Android devices in Korea, Japan, and France.

While pundits have been proclaiming "the year of mobile" for a few years, now, 2012 actually lived up to those expectations in several ways. But what will be shaking the industry in 2013? Greg Sterling of Marketing Land predicts that a year from now, we’ll look back on 2013 as “the year of the tablet.” According to a recent Nielsen survey, the gadget children and adults desired most this holiday season was the iPad, and many unwrapped Apple’s tablet Christmas morning. In fact, of the 17.4 million devices activated Dec. 25, 51 percent were tablets.

And what will make headlines in 2013? Will it be a new iPhone from Apple? A new flavor version from Android? Will Motorola make its first official flagship device for Google? Dan Rowinski of ReadWrite makes some bold predictions on what’s to come for mobile in 2013, especially after a year of tremendous industry growth.

After recently announcing the next version of Android, “Jelly Bean,” Google touted some impressive numbers surrounding the Google Play ecosystem. With 1.5 billion installs a month, 600,000 available apps and games and 20 billion app installs, Google is quickly closing the gap between Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

We’ve discussed the compelling opportunities the Android market offers and how it can benefit your app business in exceptional ways. To arm you with the information you need to improve Android app discovery, drive more installs and generate long-term, loyal usage, we've also developed a new eBook

In addition to discovering four “must-know” differences between Google Play and Apple’s App Store, our new eBook provides you with six valuable tips for Android marketing success, including:

1. Exploit the Marketing Attribution Capabilities of Google Play: Take full advantage of Google Play’s marketing attribution capabilities to conduct closed-loop analysis of your advertising, and base ongoing advertising decisions on known performance. As you acquire users, use this data to steer your marketing toward the sources that generate your most desired users, at the best cost.

2. Optimize Advertising in Real Time: With the insights gained from marketing attribution, optimize your advertising in real time toward traffic sources that are delivering the best results.

3. Optimize Your App for Search: In Google Play, search is the primary means of organic discovery. You can greatly influence search rank, and therefore app discovery, by identifying your most successful keyword and including it in the app title, and by using that keyword in the app description and promo text multiple times. Since updating your submission is quick and easy, consider experimenting with different keywords and combinations to see which yield better results.

4. Conduct Longer-Term Ad Campaigns with Multiple Networks: Google Play’s ranking algorithm rewards long-term user acquisition—apps that acquire and retain users are awarded with higher ranks. Therefore, ad campaigns should be sustained over several months, as opposed to short bursts of activity often seen in the iOS market.

5. Test Your App Presentation on Google Play: Take advantage of the fact that you can update your app immediately on Google Play. Test the way your app is presented. Try different app titles and meta tags. Test the app name in the logo. Explore new ways to describe your app, and look for new keywords.

6. Target Loyal Users—Not Just Installs: To build a thriving app business, you need installs by loyal users. It is loyal users who use your app repeatedly, make purchases, register, or take other actions that tie back to an ROI. An install, or even an app launch, does not mean that you have a loyal user. In fact, studies show that many users who install an app never even use it, or abandon it after a single use. It is loyal users on which you ultimately build your app business.

Rumors are swirling around Apple’s potentially significant changes to its search algorithm in the App Store. And a new report reveals how much of a killing Apple has made from the iPhone over the past five years. In other news, Google is ramping up for its big I/O conference in San Francisco this week, where the company is expected to make some major announcements.

After breaking the news on Saturday that Apple is rumored to be making significant changes to its App Store search algorithm, TechCrunch is now reporting on additional information from a blog post by Ian Sefferman of MobileDevHQ, who crawled App Store search reports and offered the public a summary of his findings. This read, “The headline of the Chomp Update is that there is a big change happening that affects a widespread number of search results. Keywords in the apps title’s now matter less, overall downloads matter more, but there appeared to be no change in how app rating affects search ranking.” Our team will continue to monitor this developing story, which underscores the ongoing discovery challenges mobile app users face.

Speaking of Apple, in honor of the iPhone’s fifth anniversary (June 29), a new Strategy Analytics report reveals just how much the company has made from the device over the past five years. According to the study, Apple has shipped 250 million iPhones worldwide, and the iPhone has generated $150 billion in cumulative revenues, reports TechCrunch. But the firm predicts the next five years could be tougher. Analyst Neil Mawston said, “Some mobile operators are becoming concerned about the high level of subsidies they spend on the iPhone, while Samsung is expanding its popular Galaxy portfolio and providing Apple with more credible competition.

Developers are expecting big things from Google at this week’s I/O conference in San Francisco.  Wall Street Journal reports that the company is expected to show off a new tablet running its newest mobile software, called Jelly Bean. Kicking off today, the three-day conference will showcase various new devices and Web services to help the company “win over mobile-app creators and device owners in a continuing battle with Apple,” writes reporter Amir Efrati. More than 5,000 developers will be in attendance for the conference, which sold out in a mere 20 minutes after tickets went on sale.