There are now more than 46 million avid “gadget” gamers in Western Europe, and Britain leads the league table by a surprising margin. Looked at another way, over 40% of Europe’s smartphone users are using their sleek new handsets for gaming, a phenomenon triggered by the success of Angry Birds, Farmerama and Draw Something. Gaming has now leap-frogged music as one of the most popular uses for smartphones.

A bit of bad news on the job front for SEO specialists. According to a new piece of jobs data, veterans in the field of search engine optimization are finding a relative decline in demand for their services. What’s in demand? Mobile app developers and social media channel specialists.

Smartphone users are, en masse, expected to download more than 32 billion applications and games this year, generating revenues of more than $26 billion. That’s good for a staggering 30% year-on-year growth rate and it’s bound to be good news for content publishers and games makers. But there’s a sector that appears to be even more bullish: mobile advertisers.

We found this morning this brilliant presentation given by Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger loaded up to Scribd. It takes you into the wildly successful launch and rise of Facebook’s newest prized toy, photo-sharing app Instagram. As all start-up stories, it was a bumpy ride.

What is a “triple screener,” you ask? A new breed of TV viewer who surfs the Net with a laptop, tablet or smartphone while watching the tube – erm, make that “telly” as this post is about the British mobile ad market.

Astounding new figures from Apple reveal that 255,922 apps were launched last year in the UK’s app store. That’s an average of 21,326 per month, or a whopping 701 a day. To sort the wheat from the chaff, then, here’s the first of a new fortnightly column reviewing social apps that show promise, innovation, or are just plain fun.

Remember all those predictions last decade that we’d be able to use our mobile phone to buy petrol or cab fare, or pizza? Alas, those soothesayers forgot to mention it would be a feature of everyday life in Scandinavia or South Korea, but for the rest of us – too bad. Well, we’re getting a bit closer to this day now that PizzaExpress has teamed with PayPal UK on a new iPhone app that allows you to go one better: you can pay your bill and book a table at a nearby location.

We’ve entered the month of the great holiday season, and more apps are coming out for your social shopping convenience. We review the best (and the worst) so you can make the most of your Christmas ham.

‘Tis the season for launching new mobile retail applications. Here is the second installment of our shopping apps review, a look at some of the latest entries that are trying to change the way you tackle your holiday splurge.

An “apps culture” is emerging among U.S. cell phone users, yet many are still unaware of what their phone can do, and some don’t even know if their phone has apps. Those are among the findings of new research by the Pew Internet Project, which suggests the apps market is some way ahead of most adult phone users.