iPhone leads the device race, but Android is the most popular platform

Millennial Media this weekend released its latest snapshot of the mobile device market and Apple, despite releasing just one new phone each year, it bears repeating, topped both the firm's Top 15 Manufacturers list and its Top 20 Mobile Phones list.

Of course, hot on its tail were a line of Android-running smartphones, and combined they dominated overall device impressions, accounting for 54% compared to iOS's 28% and RIM's 13%.

"Android accounted for 15 of the top 20 mobile phones for the third consecutive month," states the report. "Together, all Android phones represented 32% of the top 20 mobile phones impression share in August."

Android dominated the application platforms as well, grabbing a 49% share to Apple's 41%. The most popular apps, once again, were games, though this year music and entertainment rose to the number-two spot, pushing mobile social media (what Millennial calls "mocial," a word we should all agree right now to never use again) to number three. Communications apps held steady in fourth place, weather pulled ahead of news, and sports remained firm in seventh place.

Granted, hot on its tail might be overstating things. The iPhone (and in this report Millennial decided to lump together all incarnations of the device) held 13% market share, while the next-closest device, the LG Electronics Optimus, claimed just 6.7%, followed by the Motorola Droid, with 6.1% and the HTC Desire, at 4.8%.

The second most popular phone in the nation is from LG?

Indeed, and its positioning as a starter smartphone may be to thank (after an instant rebate and Web-only discount, T-Mobile offers it free with a new contract). While last August smartphones and connected devices accounted for 67% of the mix, by this August they were up to 86%, with feature phone use corresponding falling from 33% to 14%.

Other findings in the report include:

-- Smartphones accounted for 72% of all device impressions, while feature phones and connected devices took equal 14% slices of the pie.

-- Wi-Fi, across multiple carriers, had the largest impression of all, at 32%; smartphone users — in a gesture that grew 11% month-over-month — turned to Wi-Fi most often (59%) followed by connected devices, such as tablets and the Nintendo DS (34%) and feature phones (7%).

-- Following Wi-Fi in carrier impressions was Verizon, with an 18% share. And while AT&T is the nation's second-largest carrier, it trailed behind Sprint's 14% share of impressions, tying T-Mobile with respective 8% slices. The reason for this was the high use of Wi-Fi by AT&T users; with Wi-Fi users separated from 3G and HSPA+ impressions, cellular impressions on AT&T were actually equal to those of T-Mobile and fewer than on Sprint.