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Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media has just released its comprehensive report on the state of the mobile application industry, which includes a look at growth trends, platform diversification, platform popularity, 2011 trends and more.

According to the report's findings, developers plan to further diversify their app offerings next year and - here's some good news! - they expect to see "significant growth" in app revenue over the course of 2011.

If you mainly rely on an automobile to get around, ask yourself this question: What kind of improvements to public transit or new service offerings would make me go car-less? A public transit mobile app with real-time, open data available? A city-wide bike-sharing program? A more efficient ride-sharing community? How about something as basic as bike-friendly buses?

Latitude (who recently partnered with RWW on the Children's "Future Requests" for Computer and the Internet study) is conducting a new study to investigate how cities, transportation providers and technology companies can use Web, mobile, real-time, and location-aware technologies to improve transportation modes so that they work together as a fluid system, adding value to individuals' lives.

New data from Nielsen out today delves into the behavior of the youngest mobile consumers: the American teenager. The study further solidifies what we've known for some time - teens are heavy-duty users of text messaging services. No other demographic group texts as much as teens do, with an average of 3,339 texts sent and received per month. (For girls, it's even higher - 4,050 texts per month!)

But the study also revealed that teens are now turning to mobile applications, too, with 38% of teens using downloadable apps like those from Facebook, Pandora and YouTube. And usage in this area is growing, says Nielsen.

Native data applications, such as those installed on smartphones like the iPhone and devices running Android, now account for 50% of all mobile data volume according to a new report from Finnish mobile analytics company Zokem. In a global smartphone study released this month, the company found that while the mobile Web browser was still the most popular smartphone "app," the use of native apps outside the browser is growing faster than mobile browsing itself.

A new report released today from mobile media provider Myxer examines the current trends among check-in applications, that is, the particular group of location-based mobile social networks that allow users to announce their arrival at a specific venue in return for rewards, coupons, deals or other offers. The company found that among the top mobile check-in applications, there was a clear leader: Booyah's MyTown, a location-based game built around your own city's local shops and businesses. MyTown is heavily favored by consumers, attracting 56% of the mobile audience that uses location-based applications such as these. Loopt was in second place, with 12% of users and Gowalla and Foursquare lagged even further behind, at only 8% each.

However, only 11% of mobile users are participating in the location-based social networking community, with the majority of mobile users claiming they're simply "not interested" in these types services.

Ever since the release of Apple's iPad, the only device making a significant impact in the tablet market, many have speculated about the possibilities for the the future of the publishing industry. Back in June we mentioned the early success seen by magazines and newspapers like Wired and the Financial Times, and more recently, the Flipboard app has iPad users drooling. With these trends in mind, a new study released today by Next Issue Media predicts that $3 billion will be spent on electronic publication subscriptions by 2014.

Latitude and ReadWriteWeb recently published a two-part results series on our open innovation study, "Children's 'Future Requests' for Computers and the Internet," which asked kids 6-12 years of age to ideate future Web technology concepts.

Latitude created this video to sum up the study's key findings and big pathways for research, innovation and the future of the Web.

"In Google we trust." That may very well be the motto of today's young online users, a demographic group often dubbed the "digital natives" due their apparent tech-savvy. Having been born into a world where personal computers were not a revolution, but merely existed alongside air conditioning, microwaves and other appliances, there has been (a perhaps misguided) perception that the young are more digitally in-tune with the ways of the Web than others.

That may not be true, as it turns out. A new study coming out of Northwestern University, discovered that college students have a decided lack of Web savvy, especially when it comes to search engines and the ability to determine the credibility of search results. Apparently, the students favor search engine rankings above all other factors. The only thing that matters is that something is the top search result, not that it's legit.

Yesterday, we posted part one of the findings for "Children's Future Requests for Computers and the Internet" (PDF summary), an open innovation study by Latitude Research and ReadWriteWeb. The study asked children aged 12 and under to illustrate their ideas for new Web and computer technologies.

In our previous post, we looked at the findings from an interaction angle. We discussed how younger generations expect to have increasingly intuitive interactions with technology - and not just localized to swiping and tapping an iPad, but really moving things in the world of physical activity and objects. This represents "a shift from smartphones that can go anywhere to The Internet of Things which is everywhere," said Jessica Reinis, the analyst who headed up the study.

With a population approaching half of a billion users, if Facebook was its own nation it would be the third largest in the world behind China and India. With that in mind, it's no surprise that secondary activities on Facebook - like viewing videos - can still produce high rankings for the site that compete with the likes of Hulu and YouTube. One of the ways users on Facebook view video is through advertisements, and a recent study by TubeMogul revealed some interesting stats on which ones worked, and why.