ABI Research (News - Alert) recently released a new report entitled "Mobile Application Markets," which focuses on the distribution and economics of mobile apps, providing data-driven insights on areas such as download volumes, revenue and business models. The most significant information found in this report is the fact that the iPhone's (News - Alert) quarterly global smartphone app downloads dipped below 30 percent to 29 percent in Q2 2012.

Meanwhile, 47 percent were attributed to Android smartphones

“The iPhone’s download share tends to see a lot of seasonal fluctuation, but over the past year or so it has stayed surprisingly resiliently between 30 percent and 37 percent of the total," said senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. "In our estimates the second quarter represented the first time the iPhone dipped below 30 percent. The iPhone 5 will most likely cause a second-half hike to the download count, but that may be of a rather temporary nature.”

The report states that the main reason for Apple's (News - Alert) declining share is the company's clampdown on download bots, which some developers use to manipulate their download count, earlier in the year. According to marketing firm Fiksu, the elimination of bots may have accounted for as much as a quarter of daily volumes. Such bots haven't been much of a factor on the Android side of things as Google (News - Alert) has different app-ranking methods as well as the higher number of free apps on Android compared to iOS.

The iPad was also singled out as a reason for the iPhone's drop in share as many developers shift focus toward iPad apps.

ABI Research also recently released a new report on Wi-Fi which states that a new Wi-Fi protocol will soon dominate mobile devices: IEEE (News - Alert) 802.11ac. The next evolution in Wi-Fi over the current standard of 802.11n, 802.11ac offers faster, more reliable connectivity.

In mid-October, the research firm also released research stating that Huawei continues to maintain the lead in the mobile broadband modem market.