Ratings company Nielsen has released some end-of-year statistics about smartphones in general, and iOS and Android in particular. The company says that 2012 was the year in which smartphone owners outnumbered non-smartphone owners, growing from 49 percent at the beginning of the year to 56 percent in the third quarter. As a result, top apps saw significant increases in the number of unique visitors per month, many on the order of 50 percent or more compared to last year. The statistics paint a portrait of just how popular top web sites and apps really are.
