According to the latest data by research firm NPD, Apple’s iPhone 4 and two year old iPhone 3GS continued to lead US smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2011. The data, based on NPD’s Mobile Phone Track and Smartphone Track services, shows declining smartphone prices reaching an average selling point of $135 in Q3, although ”consumers originally considered paying more”. The top five phones in Q3 according to NPD:

• 1 – Apple iPhone 4
• 2 – Apple iPhone 3GS
• 3 – HTC EVO 4G
• 4 – Motorola Droid 3
• 5 – Samsung Intensity II

Despite their age and typical slowdown in popularity and the rise of Google’s Android operating system in smartphone market share, the iPhone 4 and 3GS still lead sales in the United States. In October, Apple announced the iPhone 4S, which went on sale on October 14th in seven countries and reported over 4 million sales in the first weekend of availability. US carriers AT&T and Sprint said they were very pleased with the initial results of iPhone 4S pre-orders, which isn’t included in NPD data for Q3, but Apple didn’t provide specific US numbers for iPhone 4S sales. Alongside the iPhone 4S, however, Apple also introduced a new 8 GB iPhone 4 model, sold at $99 on a two-year contract, and kept the iPhone 3GS around for free with a carrier contract. At Apple’s Q4 2011, CEO Tim Cook said about the free iPhone 3GS:

We did it because we want the iPhone more accessible to a broader market and so not only did we take the 3GS to free in a postpaid plan, but we also lowered the price of the iPhone 4….we did both of those because as we looked at it, these are still fantastic products and we think we can do reasonably well in selling these in the postpaid market. It also has the advantage of having a lower price in the prepaid market…we did it for both the prepaid and postpaid markets, they are both very important to us. It has been our thinking for a while to do that.

The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS run the latest version of iOS, but Apple made a major software feature of iOS 5, the voice-based assistant Siri, exclusive to the iPhone 4S. With a lower price point, it’s likely the iPhone 4 and 3GS will continue to be an important source of revenue from customers willing to get an iPhone, but not necessarily the (more expensive) new model.

According to the latest NPD data and a note issued by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster — reported by Business Insider — Mac sales for the first two months of Apple’s Q4 are up 22%, with Wall Street’s estimates averaging 16% growth for the entire quarter. Apple is expected to announce its Q4 results sometime in October, and back at the Q3 earnings call in July the company anticipated there would be a “future product transition” that would affect the September quarter — suggesting the next-generation iPhone would ship before the end of Q4.

As for the Mac, Munster indicates the release of OS X Lion, updated MacBook Airs and Mac minis on July 20 helped contributing to the 22% year-over-year growth in the same period; NPD data suggests Apple could sell between 4.4 and 4.6 million Macs in the quarter. In Q3, Apple sold 3.95 million Macs, and Tim Cook noted the MacBook Pros made up for the majority of Mac sales. It is no secret, however, that ever since the refresh in October 2010 the updated MacBook Air line has been growing in popularity among existing Mac users as well as new customers, with several analysts calling it Apple’s new crown jewel.

Meanwhile, Apple announced 1 million copies of Lion sold after 24 hours of availability, but hasn’t released new data since then. Apple has encouraged customers to upgrade to the new OS thanks to heavy promotion in the Mac App Store and by releasing a USB thumb drive for those unable to download the 4 GB OS installer. Lion also comes pre-installed on the new Macs released this summer, certainly another selling points for the Airs and minis.

According to click data analyzed by URL shortening and analytics service bit.ly, the iPad ultimately differs from other platforms in the way it’s used throughout the day. The discovery is unsurprising as Apple has been heavily touting the iPad as a new category of device aimed at doing things better than regular smartphones and computers (which Apple also happens to sell), but it’s interesting to see these usage patterns confirmed and visualized by a service that’s undoubtedly the most used when it comes to shortening and sharing links on the web.

Bit.ly analyzed links clicked from Linux, Windows and OS X machines, as well as BlackBerry, iOS and Android phones, and the iPad. Then, they compared the click data against the time of the day, the day of the week and the country to build a graph that summarizes usage patterns for the most common devices that access bit.ly links every day. The results for computers and smartphones don’t surprise: people start using PCs and smartphones as they wake up, usage slightly increases through the workday, and slows down as the evening approaches and users are far more likely to consume other content. That kind of content consumed in the late hours of the day happens to be represented by the iPad which, unlike other platforms, sees a slower approach throughout the day but a higher peak in the evening as people come back from work. In weekend days, iPad usage in the morning and afternoon is slightly higher than the rest of the week.

The iPad’s usage pattern is drastically different. Usage dips after breakfast, remains low during traditional working hours and does not peak until much later in the evening. During the weekends iPad usage between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. is higher than it is during the week at those same hours. No other device sees a heavy increase of use during the weekends, showing that the iPad is used as an entertainment device and differs from both smartphones and browsers.

Bit.ly also notes how Facebook and YouTube are still the most accessed websites from users, and that in spite of “official” availability in 39 countries, they registered iPad data from 203 countries. The iPad is different from other devices, and it’s being used by consumers in new different ways that are causing these unprecedented usage patterns. For instance, people are more likely to come back from work and relax on the couch with an iPad reading news or a book, rather than sitting at their desk using a PC again. Or, they might want to enjoy a game with their kids, or read a book to them before they go to sleep. Check out the full report at ReadWriteWeb for the complete stats.

In the past few weeks, I’ve bought, reviewed and overall enjoyed a couple of different weather apps for my iPhone. Let alone the useful weather widget Apple is introducing with iOS 5, I’ve found myself going back to apps like WeatherSnitch and the recently updated Shine (which now includes data for international locations) to check on forecasts and the simple weather data I need to get by on a daily basis. This new app by StudioDalton, however, called BeachWeather, might just be what I was looking for this summer’s vacation: rather than a new default weather app to tweak by adding the locations of the beaches I’ll visit throughout this summer, a beautiful and focused weather utility that’s specifically aimed at checking how’s weather like…at the beach. By weather, I mean forecasts, UV index, wind speeds, and air & sea temperature — not the most complex data points when having to check on whether or not you can go to the beach with your friends and family.

BeachWeather, released today, impressed me because of its colorful design (which kind of reminded me of Robocat’s Outside for the general color scheme) and, more importantly, huge database of locations available inside the app. See, every year I go with my friends to a beach 45 minutes away from my town, and that’s not exactly a “popular” beach. Not one of those you see on television or rendered on tourist guides. It’s next to the camping I spent most of my summers in, and I still enjoy going there when I’ve got some free time. But it’s certainly not one of those beaches you constantly stumble upon on Google Image Search when you’re looking for “vacation in Italy”. Yet, BeachWeather’s database had this very specific beach available, alongside others a few miles away from it. None of those can be deemed as “popular”, nor do they often appear in other weather apps for the iPhone. In fact, unlike other weather apps, BeachWeather is, well, focused on beaches, not cities and towns. I don’t know what kind of online database/service the developers are using, but I was definitely impressed with my (local) results. Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on your location, but after taking a peek inside other countries’ locations I can say the database is really, really huge.

In the app, you can add multiple locations by browsing by country, or getting recommendations based on your location. Recommendations were accurate and, in fact, I added the first three ones the app suggested. When dealing with multiple locations configured in BeachWeather, the app presents a “card” interface to swipe between available beaches and check on weather forecasts. The app provides a 3 day forecast with data organized in tabs and associated with an icon or color depending on what’s the weather like. At the bottom of the card, you can navigate between Today: Morning, Today: Afternoon, Tomorrow: Morning, Tomorrow: Afternoon, and a forecast for the third day. A screenshot of the card can be shared on Twitter, Facebook, or via email, and you can tap on the forecast’s icon to get a translucent black popup telling you what does it mean — e.g. “clear” or “mostly cloudy”. In my tests, weather data from BeachWeather seemed to fall in line with those of other websites like the Italian Meteo.it or the universal Yahoo Weather. Other apps like WeatherSnitch, Apple’s Weather and Shine reported forecasts similar to BeachWeather.

BeachWeather is a real gem if you’re like me and you need an answer to the question “What’s the weather like at the beach today?”. You can download BeachWeather at $0.99 on the App Store.

According to a new report by mobile data monitoring tool Onavo, Twitter’s official client for iPhone is the most data consuming app when compared to unofficial solutions like Echofon, Tweetbot, or the recently acquired TweetDeck. By taking in consideration data from mobile devices using Onavo’s data compression and monitoring services in different countries, with different Twitter clients, the company has found out that in average situations (which they call a “simple scenario”) like loading a timeline or a trending topic, Twitter for iPhone generally ranks higher in the list of apps that consume more data, presumably over 3G. According to the study’s results, Twitter for iPhone averages on 193 KB data usage for a simple scenario, whist Echofon’s app ranks #2 with 163 KB. Tapbots’ popular Twitter client Tweetbot is seen needing 112 KB on average to load a timeline or trend, and TweetDeck’s iPhone app is considered the most lightweight of all four clients with only 86 KB consumed. In the same report, Onavo also claims their software can help users save 65% of TweetDeck’s data usage as well.

Other interesting data points from the study:

• 34% of users in Spain have a Twitter app; 22% in the United States.
• China’s Twitter app usage is 7% according to Onavo’s stats.
• Of all Onavo users, 65% of them use the official Twitter app. TweetDeck, Tweetbot and Echofon are the most popular unofficial clients with share floating between 6% and 8%.

Obviously, Onavo’s study isn’t based on universal iPhone usage — rather, it only accounts for those users who have modified their device’s network settings to route data through Onavo’s proxy, which then communicates with an iPhone app to display data usage over time, and also claims to reduce data consumption by compressing requests coming through their network. It would also be interesting to know why the official Twitter app consumes more data than others — could be because it loads more tweets by default, or uses a different set of APIs. Check out the complete infographic here.

Teased a few months ago with an impressive website that made great use of scrolling and animations, Ben the Bodyguard for iPhone has managed to gain the interest of everyone who’s closely watching the iOS development scene and is always looking for well-designed and innovative apps. In spite of the fact that little was known about the actual purpose of the app and how it would compare against other “secure data managers” like 1Password and Wallet, Ben the Bodyguard was intriguing because of the attention to detail and design, the character himself (a French bodyguard, indeed, called Benoit — Ben) and, again, the amazing website.

After months of silence (as it seems appropriate for a good spy / secret agent / whatever it is Ben does), the app came out last night on the iPhone at $4.99 and I decided to take it for a spin. Unfortunately Ben the Bodyguard can’t be compared with full-featured solutions like 1Password, but thanks to its cool design and adventure-like nature, I believe the app still has a chance to attract casual users looking for something to keep their data safe and private.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Ben the Bodyguard is an app that, like 1Password, can keep a variety of data safe & private in its database. The app uses a master password and 256-bit AES encryption to secure your data, which consists of photos, contacts, reminders, notes, and passwords. The password tab is particularly interesting, as it allows you to choose between different templates like web login, credit card, driver’s license and bank account, or create your own template if the categories above don’t fit the password you want to protect. The most interesting aspect of the app however (and what I believe will be the main selling point for the developers and users), is how the entire interface and menu options revolve around the character of Ben. For instance, once you fire up the app for the very first time you’re greeted with an intro sequence describing the life of Ben before he became a bodyguard — you can skip this intro, but it’s so well realized you might end up watching it anyway. Just like the website (which made the rounds of the Internet months ago) puts the focus on Ben — and not the features — as a man you can trust to protect your data, the app doesn’t present itself as a software capable of encrypting and securing notes and password: instead, the general feeling you get is that there’s this man on your iPhone’s screen telling you with a French-English accent that your stuff is safe with him. Character and story-wise, Ben the Bodyguard is a winner: graphics are beautiful, voice over is fun, animations are fluid — you can see the effort that went into designing the application and giving Ben an “identity” to make it stand out from the App Store ecosystem. (more…)

Citing data compiled by the NPD, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster says [via Barron's] Mac sales in April have been slow, mainly due to the MacBook refreshed last year that “set the bar high”, but is still nowhere to be seen in 2011. Indeed, speculation in the past months had pegged Apple’s white MacBook to be headed towards discontinuation, leaving room for the popular MacBook Airs as the new Mac OS X entry line.

Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster this afternoon offers an update on how Apple (AAPL) computer sales are trending: It was slow in April, he writes, according to U.S. sales data compiled by NPD, thanks to a MacBook refresh a year ago that set the bar high for Apple’s year-over-year comparison.

Apple shipped 9% more units in April than a year earlier, while the Street is modeling the entire June quarter to see an increase of 22%, to 4.2 million units.

NPD data posted in February revealed a 20% increase in year-over-year Mac sales, with Apple set to sell 3.6 million Macs in the quarter — as announced at the Q2 2011 earnings call, Apple eventually sold 3.76 million units. Munster is confident that, in spite of slow sales in April, Apple will hit the Street consensus of 22% growth for the entire June quarter; on the other side of the product line, iPod sales are also expected to be better than the 10-15% drop Munster initially projected.

If you’ve found yourself struggling to find the perfect weather app that looks great and it’s packed with functionalities at the same time, you might want to take a look at Shine, the latest entry in the weather software panorama that, at $0.99 in the App Store, provides a neat way to check on your current location’s weather, forecasts, temperature and wind speed. Shine wants to keep things simple, and for someone like me who’s no weather expert at all, the promise of offering readable weather data in a beautiful and intuitive design sounds like a major selling point, especially considering the price of one buck.

The app’s main screen lets you see your location’s weather conditions at a glance. Current weather is displayed above in a large calendar-like view with temperature, icon and wind speed, whilst a today / tonight / tomorrow forecast is embedded below with the same stats. You can assign multiple locations in the settings, and re-fetch your location by tapping on the crosshair icon in the top right. Switching between locations is as easy as sliding your finger on the location bar on top. Another feature of Shine is the extended forecast view you get by pulling up the screen with a verticals swipe; the only problem is, the app seems to be US-centric in the way it gets weather information — it relies on SimpleGeo and the National Weather service, and I wasn’t able to get forecasts or correct wind speeds in Italy. Perhaps the developers should implement Yahoo Weather data or something else to make sure Shine works across countries outside the United States.

As it stands now, Shine is a simple, beautiful weather experiment that I’m sure works perfectly in the US, but lacks the necessary data to be a hit internationally. Perhaps the developers will fix this in a future update (I sure hope so), so if you live in the US and have $0.99 to spend, give it a try. Otherwise, wait for an update.