The Kindle Fire nabbed 54.4% of the Android tablet market in February, followed by the Galaxy tab family of tablets from Samsung Electronics Ltd. (OTC: SSNLF.PK) with 15.4% and the Xoom tablet from Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MMI). The Dell Streak from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) holds a 1.3% share and the Tablet S from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) has a 0.7% share.

In December the Kindle fire had a 29.4% share of the Android tablet market, and it took share from every one of its competitors over the next two months. The iPad’s share of the total market for tablets is around 70%.

Before we answer that, it’s worth noting than users of the iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are much more likely to connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi than are users of phones using the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). In the US, 68% of Android users only connect through their mobile networks and just 32% connect through both Wi-Fi and the network. Just 29% of US iPhone users connect only through their mobile networks and 71% use both connections.

In the UK, 43% of Android users only connect through the mobile network and 57% use both. Among UK iPhone users, only 13% never use the Wi-Fi capability of the device, while 87% use both.

In total, 69% of UK smartphones use both Wi-Fi and the mobile network to connect to the Internet, while the US total is just 38%.

Here’s comScore’s analysis:

In the U.K., the scarcity of unlimited data plans and higher incidence of smartphone pre-paid contracts with a pay-as-you-go data model likely contributes to data offloading among users wanting to economize their mobile usage. In addition, the current lack of high-speed data networks in the U.K. might also lead users to seek out higher bandwidth capacity on Wi-Fi networks. In the U.S., the increased availability of LTE, 4G and other high-speed data networks currently make it less necessary for smartphone users to offload, but it’s also possible that the diminishing availability of unlimited cellular data plans will eventually push more usage to Wi-Fi.

That sounds about right. But why do iPhone users care and Android users not care? One possibility is that the mobile networks with the most iPhones are also the networks with the most Wi-Fi hotspots. As data plans get more costly, though, everyone will start to care.

The comScore press release is available here.

Paul Ausick

So says comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) in their latest report on on-line spending. According to the firm, sales reaches $1.04 billion last weekend, the second-highest total ever recorded. Total on-line sales for period from November 1st through December 18th have reached nearly $32 billion. Total sales last week totaled $6.3 billion, a new record.

comScore’s chairman noted that sales aren’t over yet:

With only a few more days until Christmas, the preponderance of Americans’ late season holiday shopping will shift to brick-and-mortar retail, although the procrastinators among us will still be able to take advantage of expedited shipping and buy online up to and including the day before Christmas Eve with the guarantee of having their gifts delivered in time for the holiday. In total, we will see another $5 or $6 billion in e-commerce spending over the remainder of December to finish off what has clearly been an outstanding season for online retailers.

The research firm also noted that ten days in this year’s holiday shopping season have seen $1 billion or more in on-line sales. Cyber Monday, November 28th, posted a total sales figure of $1.251 billion, the highest single-day total ever.

The International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales index rose 3.4% last week compared with the previous week and 4.6% year-over-year. The ICSC expects sales to rise 3.5% this holiday season, slightly less than last year’s 3.8% rise over 2009.

Paul Ausick

That’s the report from comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), based on e-commerce sales for the first two weeks of November. Consumers have spent $9.7 billion on-line through November 16th, an increase of 14% over the $8.5 billion they spent last year. That’s probably really good news for the three leading on-line e-commerce sites: Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT). comScore forecasts total 2011 holiday e-commerce sales at $37.6 billion, up 15% from $32.6 billion for the 2010 holiday season.

The following chart from comScore shows sales for the past four years and the first three weeks of this year.

Consumers continue to look for bargains, and what matters most for on-line sales during the holiday season is free shipping. More than 75% of on-line shoppers say free shipping is either very important or somewhat important to their purchasing decisions. In 2010, according to comScore, 49% of purchases made in the fourth quarter of the year included free shipping.

Amazon, Walmart, and Target can all afford to offer free shipping throughout the entire holiday shopping season, where smaller retailers may offer it on a piecemeal basis as they try to bump up sales during a promotional period.

E-commerce and web-based product research continues to play a bigger role in consumer spending. As smartphones and tablets continue to penetrate the consumer market, the impact of e-commerce should continue to grow.

Paul Ausick

Those are some of the results reported by comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) in its report on the Top 50 Web Properties for the month of August.  The top five sites in number of unique visitors were Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Facebook, and AOL, Inc. (NYSE: AOL). Google picked up about 1 million visits compared with July’s numbers, Yahoo lost about 100,000 visit, Microsoft gained nearly 3 million, Facebook gained about 300,000, and AOL picked up nearly 4 million.

Among leading e-commerce sites, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), with almost 102 million visits led EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), which boasted nearly 74 million visits, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), which claimed about 39 million visits, and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), which posted over 26 million visits. Amazon’s month-over-month growth totaled nearly 4 million, almost 4x better than any of the improvements posted by the other on-line retailers.

Among newspaper web sites, the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) posted more than 66 million visits followed by Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) with more than 44 million visits and the Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) with about 26 million visits. The New York Times’s new subscription plan does not appear to be affecting page visits negatively.

Google’s lead over Yahoo and Microsoft is not insurmountable at a current difference of just 5 million visits. But visits don’t reflect the ads presented, and its there that Google’s lead is far wider. Facebook, which trails Google by about 20 million visits, is becoming a larger force in the battle for on-line ads.

Among the e-commerce players, Amazon’s early mover advantage over Wal-mart and Target may never be closed. Amazon simply offers more innovations more quickly than the two bricks-and-mortar stores can react to. Ebay’s strength remains, but it trails Amazon by 25 million visits and is not closing the gap.

Among newspaper companies, the New York Times has pretty well crushed the Washington Post and continues its likely insurmountable lead over Gannett. Still, having three newspaper properties in the Top 50 is not a bad showing. Now if the papers could only figure out a way to make more money from the web.

One final note: Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) fell by about 500,000 month-over month. Given the current customer dissatisfaction with the company, that number may continue to fall. It’s worth noting.

Paul Ausick

The June 2011 rankings have just been released by comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), and Android now runs 40.1% of all US smartphones.  That’s a gain of 5.4% from the March survey which gave Android a 34.7% share. Apple’s gain was a much smaller 1.1%, giving the Cupertino company a market share of 26.6%. RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia all lost share.

Among handset makers, Samsung (OTC: SSNLF) now leads with 25.3% of the market, a gain of 0.8% since March. LG Electronics gained 0.4% to grab a 21.3% share. Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) lost -1.3% of its share in June, but held on to third place with 14.5% of the market. Apple gained 1%, and controls 8.9% of the market, and RIM lost 0.5% to give it 7.9% of the handset market in June.

Globally, Apple leads handset makers with a 19.1% share of the market according to a report from IDC. Samsung, with a 16.2% share, was the fastest growing. In third place globally is Nokia, followed by RIM and HTC Corp.

Microsoft and Nokia are working on joint project to release a new handset built by Nokia to run the Windows 7 mobile OS, and the Redmond, Washington-based company is believed to be building its next mobile operating system, dubbed Windows 8, eventually to include smartphones. Apple is believed to have a head start in developing a single OS for to replace both Mac OS X Lion and iOS.

Google’s global market share of the smartphone OS space is nearing 50% according to research at Canalys.  Global smartphone shipments grew by 73% year-over-year in the second quarter, and Android shipments grew by almost 380% in the same period. Samsung’s handset shipments rose to 17 million in the quarter, up 421% year-over-year. Samsung also supports the Windows Mobile/Phone 7 operating systems and its own proprietary OS.

Nokia and RIM are the losers in handset shipments, with RIM experiencing a year-over-year decline from 33% to 12%. Nokia still does well in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, but has performed poorly elsewhere. The company needs a big winner from it’s Microsoft deal if it hopes to survive.

All these surveys match up pretty well and they all tell the same story: the battle for turf in smartphones is being waged between Google and Apple. Whether Microsoft/Nokia can change that remains to be seen.

Paul Ausick

We have shown a brief news summary and the implied stock price changes on each after the 4:00 PM EST closing bell.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) closed higher by 1.1% ahead of earnings and its earnings report was given a boost by digital sales this last quarter.  Shares are up 3.6% at $12.25, but it will have to rise another 3% before it is outside of a longer-term trading range.

The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDE) beat earnings with $2.42 EPS versus $1.72 estimates as revenues grew 65%… Plant nutrients rule!  Shares closed down 1.5% at $38.49 but the stock is up over 7% in the after-hours at $41.25 versus a year range of $32.01 to $51.23.

Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) rose handily today by 10% but is giving some back after a deeper loss in the quarter and after planning to add LTE Advanced-ready technology to its 4G network.  Shares are down 2% at $2.42 in the after-hours session.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) announced the acquisition of AdXpose for $22 million in stock, but the earnings are taking the stock south despite 38% revenue growth and 23% EBITDA growth.  Shares are down 14.5% at $18.00 after closing at $21.07 today.  Keep in mind that the 52-week range is $17.18 to $31.28.

Entropic Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTR) is down after a 14% drop in sales sequentially, even if it was a gain of 51% from the year ago period.  Earnings were down sequentially too.  This was not expected and shares are down a whopping 25% at $5.00 in the after-hours session.  Shares had already hit a 52-week low of $6.36 today.

GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR) is catching a bounce as the solar equipment maker beat earnings estimates and reiterated annual guidance.  GT shares fell 3.7% today but the stock is up 5.6% at $13.98 today in the after-hours session.  The 52-week range is $6.63 to $17.50.

Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) was already weak after MetroPCS stunk up Wall Street this week with earnings.  Misery loves company in pre-paid cellular as it saw a drop in subscriber additions.  Leap Wireless fell 2.2% to $10.04 today and the stock is down 6.3% at $9.40.  That is under the 52-week low of $9.51 by the way.

MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) had sales in line with targets but earnings were light for Q2; shares of the online payment and e-commerce platform in Latin America fell 2.7% but are down 4.4% more at $69.11 in the after-hours.

MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR) is trading up after beating earnings, even if the year is looking light on guidance.  The wafer producer for chip and solar companies was down 0.4% today but the stock is up 5.7% at $7.39 after hitting a 52-week low of $6.82 today.

Solarwinds, Inc. (NYSE: SWI), which is about as far as being out of the solar business as it can be, beat earnings and revenues, guided its third quarter in line with estimates, and guided 2011 in line with estimates.  Shares rose over 2% today and is up another 8% at $23.00 after the close.

Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE: WLT) shares were down 2.5% today ahead of results and the company’s miss on earnings has shares down another 5.5% at $104.45.  That is a combined $9.00 move or so from yesterday’s close.

Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WWWW) is surging after beating earnings expectations.  The big boost is coming as it is acquiring to acquire Network Solutions for $405 million in cash in a deal that is said to be at least 20% accretive to the $1.22 EPS figure for 2012 and with even higher accretion in 2013.  This is a coup, and the stock rose over 6% today to $8.66 and is up almost 30% at $11.00 in the after-hours.

Zipcar, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZIP) is surging after the company’s earnings report. The company raised full year guidance and shares are up 16% att $26.70 in the after-hours session.  Not bad at all for a freshly public company.

Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) was significantly lower than expected in same-store sales gains of only 4.9%.  This one rose 6% to $27.10 today but the stock is down 13% at $23.50 in the after-hours session.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Web-based email traffic declined by -6% in November 2010, compared with the November 2009, and total page views fell by -15%. That is a big drop, but as comScore points out, web-based email reaches more than 70% of the US online population each month.

It should also be no surprise that younger email users are deserting web-based email much more quickly than older users. The youngest users, 12 to 17 years old, viewed -53% fewer pages than they did a year ago and represented a decline of -24% in unique visitors. Older users, aged 55 and up posted more unique visitors and more page views. Even those 18 to24 years old, who showed a gain of 9% in unique visitors, registered a -14% drop in pages viewed.

Mobile email usage has reached 78% of US smartphone owners. Companies with mobile email programs that serve ads as well as email messages should prosper as the number of smartphone owners grows and these new users begin reading email on their new mobile phones.

That is good news for Google and Apple, but not such good news for Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft’s MSN, none of which offers a unique mobile email program. Web-based email is not going to disappear any time soon, but it’s not going to grow either. And its arguable whether or not search will be as heavily used on mobile devices, most of which offer connections to a user’s social network and to thousands of apps that can connect a user to information that could once be obtained only by laborious searching.

The boom in mobile email use among the youngest users guarantees that as time passes each of the older cohorts will also see an increase in mobile usage. The youngest generation won’t be tied to their chairs or couches or desks. Those of us who are, shall we say, more mature, are simply fossils-in-waiting.

What does it tell you about the future of the PC business?

Paul Ausick

comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) released data that shows touchscreen smartphone sales up 159% from August 2008 to August 2009 when units sold hit 23.8 million. The growth was much greater than that for the total smartphone category which was up 63% in the US for the same period to 33.8 million units.

Apple had the lion’s share of the mobile touchscreen market–33%. Two models from LG has nearly 16% and the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) Blackberry storm each had about 8% of total unit sales for the three months that ended in August.

The news has pertinence beyond the touchscreen smartphone sector. PC makers are experimenting with touchscreens and HP (NYSE:HPQ) has been fairly aggressive entering the market. Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 was designed to run well with touchscreens, a sign that the software company believes a very large portion of PC use is heading in that direction over the next year or two.

The touchscreen data would also confirm Apple’s likely launch of a tablet device which would be a flat piece of hardware with a 10 inch display. Many analysts believe that the tablet will run like a large iPhone and will be the key to Apple’s push toward what it hopes will be dominance in online video and e-books. Apple’s tablet product may do more to move touchscreen PCs forward than anything that HP has put into the market or is likely to in 2010.

The keyboard may be going the way of the buggy whip.

Douglas A. McIntyre