ReadWriteWeb

The first in-depth user research study on the usage of the "Location" field within Twitter profiles has just been published by the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). With a sample size of 32 million English language tweets in hand, PARC summer intern Brent Hecht selected a group of 10,000 active users to study. Remarkably, he found that 34% of Twitter users do not provide a valid geographic location on their Twitter user profiles. Instead, some of these users co-opt the field to make jokes, express their love for a particular celebrity or to shout back at Twitter that their location is "NON YA BUSINESS!" Others, meanwhile, provide no location information at all.

For any related service or other research study that leverages this field to determine Twitter users' actual location, the implication is obvious. Without first parsing the tweets to remove those that don't use the location field as intended, the sample data could be corrupted. PARC already found one study where that was the case.

The mobile application marketplace will reach $25 billion by 2015, according to a new report from World Mobile Applications Market, a U.S.-based market research firm. It's yet another confirmation of the huge worldwide trend that is the proliferation of app stores.

The mobile app market was $6.8 billion this year, the reports says, but will grow steadily over the next four years to reach $25 billion. And out of that $25 billion, Apple's App Store will account for 20.5% of total revenues.

In November, a German market research firm released a study indicating that outside of Apple's iPhone, most smartphone owners had little loyalty to their smartphone. 56% of Apple users in global markets would remain loyal to their device, it said. Now that data has been reconfirmed by a second study, this one from mobile analytics firm Zokem. It shows that within the U.S. market specifically, iPhone loyalty is even greater.

Looking just at U.S. users, Zokem found that the iPhone beat its competitors in terms of user loyalty in 2010 by a wide margin, scoring 84% higher in loyalty rankings than its nearest competitor, Android.

Portland-based mobile services platform Urban Airship recently released the results of its year-end survey, which asked hundreds of developers about their current efforts and future plans, in order to measure trends in the mobile application development space.

According to the developers' answers, there were some surprising findings. For example, iOS development is expected to drop slightly in to 2011, from 99.5% to 90%, while Android increases from 44% to 74%. Another interesting stat regarding in-app purchases showed a huge jump in developer usage - from 8% in 2010 to 31% in 2011.

2010 brought with it a number of security issues - new regulations, technological changes - for small businesses, and there are many indications that security will continue to be an important issue in the new year. Alongside increased threats will come increased scrutiny to data privacy and security issues. Indeed, we've posited that tackling security issues may be a good resolution.

Risk consulting firm Kroll has released its forecast for data security trends in 2011. The report highlights key areas in which businesses are likely to see significant changes in security laws, vulnerabilities, and protective measures.

We sometimes get too caught up in the specifics of the enterprise and fail to look beyond the data center for reflection about the work we do.

Ann Mack is director of trendspotting for JWT Worldwide . She has detailed 100 things to watch in 2011. It's a study in emerging movements and a refreshing guide for any organization that is thinking about how trends can have a direct impact on an organization and the future of its enterprise.

In several instances, the presentation portrays how technology intersects with cultural shifts, innovations and disruption in long established practices. It documents examples that show the importance of mobile technologies and the ways that media is transforming across multiple platforms. The presentation explores pop culture, sports, architecture and other sectors. But also in it are a number of examples that remind us how quickly the enterprise needs to adapt to trends that appear faster than ever in our connected society.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is almost upon us, and this time, it appears the general theme is "evolution" not "revolution." Like 2010's event, there will be e-books and tablets and newer and better TVs. There will be more 3D and Web-connected devices, including TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. And yes, that list sounds a lot like last year's and even the year before.

A recent Reuters report went so far as to say that the CES 2011 gadget fest's "sizzle fizzles." Oh dear! But we're not in the same boat. For mobile enthusiasts - industry folk and consumers alike - there is stil plenty to look forward to from CES 2011, even if it lacks a big reveal, like the long-awaited Verizon iPhone.

Editor's note: Every December the ReadWriteWeb team looks into the murky depths of the coming year and tries to predict the future. How did we do last year? Well, Facebook didn't go public, Google Wave didn't make a comeback, and Spotify didn't make it to the U.S. But our forecasts for Google Chrome, cloud computing, Facebook and something we called the "iTablet" were spot on. What's in store for 2011? All this week we've been posting our predictions. Let us know your prognostications in the comments.

Editor's note: Every December the ReadWriteWeb team looks into the murky depths of the coming year and tries to predict the future. How did we do last year? Well, Facebook didn't go public, Google Wave didn't make a comeback, and Spotify didn't make it to the U.S. But our forecasts for Google Chrome, cloud computing, Facebook and something we called the "iTablet" were spot on. What's in store for 2011? All this week we'll be posting our predictions. Let us know your prognostications in the comments.

1: There will be major opportunities and innovations around big data - storage, processing, analytics. "Data-driven" will be the new buzzword. "Data scientist" will be the new hot job. So in the spirit of the film The Graduate, I want to say one word to you. Just one word. "Statistics."

Editor's note: Every December the ReadWriteWeb team looks into the murky depths of the coming year and tries to predict the future. How did we do last year? Well, Facebook didn't go public, Google Wave didn't make a comeback, and Spotify didn't make it to the U.S. But our forecasts for Google Chrome, cloud computing, Facebook and something we called the "iTablet" were spot on. What's in store for 2011? All this week we'll be posting our predictions. Let us know your prognostications in the comments.

1. Predictive analytics will be applied to more business processes, regardless of whether it helps. Netuitive is applying predictive analytics to IT system monitoring. This is an ideal use for predictive analytics. But Theresa Doyon has written about how survival analysis can be applied to customer attrition and employee turn-over.