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Mobile analytics company Flurry has been tracking the progression of iOS and Android application penetration across the world. No surprise, the United States is the most mature smartphone market on the planet. The rest of the world is catching up. China and South Korea both have made great leaps in 2011 to bring smart devices to users and where there is a smartphone, there is an app for that.

The U.S. has the highest install base of Android and iOS devices running apps in the world at 109 million. China is second at 35 million with the United Kingdom third at 17 million. The mobile app market is by no means saturated. Flurry still sees lots of room for it to grow.

WordPress has released version 2.0 of its Android app for mobile blogging, and as a WordPress for iOS user, I am jealous. The new app launches with a screen that covers just about every first action a mobile blogger needs. It's arranged in correct order of priority, and it uses a big, easily tappable grid of buttons with an "action bar" over the top to handle the rest.

Other additions are catching up with WordPress for iOS, but they're welcome. The post editor now has a formatting toolbar above the keyboard, and the app now has a tablet view. The app also adds post uploading in the background and gets a few other fixes. This is an open-source app, and it's the best mobile blogging interface I've seen yet. What's up with everybody else?

In days of yore, kids wanted to be policemen, kung fu experts or jet fighters when they grew up. They saw what was being glorified on television and in the movies and said, "Daddy, that is what I want to do!" These days, kids may want to grow up to be great mobile developers. It could happen.

Google is making that easier than ever to learn to develop for Android. Last night it introduced a new beta program, Android Training, a collection of classes designed to help mobile developers make better Android apps. Google realizes that in the realm of public opinion Android apps are perceived to be inferior to iOS. Hence, Android Training is targeted to help developers make slicker, sexier, more functional apps.

It hasn't even been five years since Apple unveiled the first iPhone. The device wasn't the world's first smartphone, but was arguably the most capable and well-designed and Apple's marketing prowess it made it the first must-have gadget of its kind. Soon after came Android, which has powered increasingly impressive devices by a range of manufacturers.

The growth of smartphone adoption and associated mobile technologies has been staggering. As of the end of 2011, the majority of U.S. adults under the age of 35 now own a smartphone. Sixty-two percent of them have downloaded apps (mostly games), and mobile Web usage among these consumers has grown 45% since last year.

When you really boil it down, which apps that you've downloaded from the Android Market do you actually use? According to new numbers from Nielsen, outside of the Market itself, Facebook is the next used app across age groups on Android. Four out of every five people use Facebook for Android, outdistancing Google's own apps and just about every other app on the platform.

That comes as no surprise. Facebook is the most popular app of all time, with 350 million people accessing the social network from mobile devices. Across the age demographics surveyed by Nielsen, Google properties took the next four spots. After that, the list gets interesting, with media apps more popular for younger segments and productivity apps prevalent for older Android users.

Evernote Hello is a fine example of a really good idea that, when executed, doesn't work at all well. In concept, Hello is brilliant. Who doesn't have a problem with remembering names, especially when you're at a party or work function and being introduced to a half-dozen people simultaneously?

As I said, it's a really good idea, and the execution is almost perfect. However, Hello doesn't seem to have seen much real-world testing. While this seems like a perfect app for folks working in IT and meeting lots of people for business, it has a lot of problems that need to be sorted out first.

The mobile platform wars are in full swing. Android and Apple dominate the landscape but a new report from VisionMobile says that there will be no clear winner in the battle for supremacy over the mobile market. Android controls the numbers, Apple controls the profits and everybody else is fighting for scraps and third place in the ecosystem.

Developers are the front line soldiers of the platform wars. "iOS and Android are winning not only by virtue of technological sophistication, but primarily by the strength of their application ecosystems," the VisionMobile report states. The "network effect" drives the ecosystem, more sales equals more developers and more applications which in turn drives more developers. We take a close look at the platform wars through VisionMobile's report below.

It has been a little more than a week since the Kindle Fire has been available to the general public and fundamental approach that Amazon has taken to the device is beginning to take shape. This is not exactly a question of iPad vs. Kindle Fire nor the notion that the Fire is "a service, and not a product." Amazon's approach to the Android code is addition by subtraction. What has the Fire done to the Android platform and is it ultimately a recipe for success?

Yesterday AllThingsD announced the launch of the Facebook phone, again. Codenamed Buffy, this Android HTC phone will feature deep Facebook integration and support for HTML5. It is expected to arrive in 12-18 months. Facebook had to do something mobile if they really want to compete with Google and Apple, right? Facebook chose Android as its platform, and Buffy as the name. Here are 5 ways Android phones are like Buffy. We're calling on all Buffy fans to add to this in the comments. Now, prepare thyself!

Looking back at 2011, we could call it subtitle it as The Year Of Android Malware. It started with DroidDream and reports have been issued all year that have shown exponential growth in Android malware. It is not getting any better. If Juniper's research can be believed, it is getting much worse.

Juniper says there has been a 472% rise in Android malware samples since July 2011. Juniper says that almost all of the Android malware contains code for root access that will force the device to communicate with a command-and-control server and download additional instructions. 55% of Android malware acts as spyware and the rise of "SMS Trojans" has become a significant problem.