In fact, the company is experiencing their biggest sales growth in three years. To keep the momentum rolling they have turned to the iPhone. Rumors have been confirmed that Verizon will begin to offer the sought after Apple phone in early February. Analysts expect Verizon to sell roughly 13 million iPhones this year. The iPhone will be a welcome addition for Verizon’s already popular smartphone line, which feature Google’s Android operating system.

But the wireless segment is not the only area that experienced growth in this last quarter. Their wireline industry also grew by adding more than 200,000 new FiOS internet user’s and almost 200,000 new FiOS video connection customers.

While it isn’t clear how the iPhone will impact the bottom line at Verizon, it appears they are heading in the right direction again this year.

To make it easy lets take a look at the infographic from their site and see what they found:

We can see that consumers have an overall (87%) preference for shopping on web and mobile sites. 60% shop using either digital or print ads, or both, and only 4% are using mobile apps. these figures suggest that there is still a lot of opportunity to develop application based shopping.

Interestingly enough, the infographic also reveals purchasing preferences in the different consumer product categories. One item which stands out is for tablet users. They sure do seem to love their toys and electronics- two categories which I think go hand and hand for the young and young at heart. Perhaps this purchasing behavior is how they came to have their tablets before anyone else.

But of even more interest is, who is buying. The most prominent internet shopper (gatherer) is the 40-something female. Her household income is around 63,000/ year and she is an active Facebook user (over 80% connected). 43% of these shoppers own smart phones and 16% are using tablets.

This leaves me to wonder; are men too busy hunting for a good deal online to actually commit to buying something? Either way, this research suggests we still prefer browser-based shopping over apps and that means there’s a lot of room for growth in that market.

Pandora used CES as an excuse to boast their ridiculous number of registered users and new partnerships that further cement them as a major player in the Internet radio business.

First up, Pandora declared that they have now moved up to more than 125 million registered users. This is most likely due to the fact that Pandora is now deployed on more than 450 consumer electronic devices, up from 200 products the same time last year.

They announced that the average listener time has increased to 18 hours a month. Considering that more and more people listen to Pandora on their smartphones, that’s a lot of data and money for the mobile providers.

As a final boast that is sure to make Pandora the envy of Internet radio companies everywhere, they announced that they now own 68% of the market share. At least they did in November according to Triton Digital.

Pandora is also now in partnerships with 23 automotive companies. Some of those include Acura, Kia and Audiovox, with the last one being an aftermarket company. They also announced a partnership with Dish Network for their new set-top box and DVR.

Jessica Steel, EVP of business and corporate development for Pandora said, “The car is one of the most popular venues for radio listening and incorporating Pandora into the native environment of automobile dashboards makes listening to personalized internet radio as easy and natural as listening to traditional radio.”

Do you contribute to Pandora’s 125 million users? Or do you prefer one of the other providers? Sound off in the comments.

“This app not only includes Facebook’s most popular features, such as News Feed, Inbox, and Photos, but also enables you to upload photos and find friends from your phone’s contacts.”

As you might expect, users will be charged for the data they use. The good news is that Facebook collaborated with 20 mobile carriers worldwide to provide the app free of charge for the first 90 days. The list of carriers offering free data access is Aircel (India), Airtel (India), Banglalink (Bangladesh), Beeline (Russia), Celcom (Malaysia), Etisalat (Egypt, Nigeria), Globe (Philippines), Idea (India), Indosat (Indonesia), O2 Telefonica (Germany), Reliance (India), Smart (Philippines), Smartfren (Indonesia), Telkomsel (Indonesia), Three (Indonesia, United Kingdom), TIM (Brazil), TMN (Portugal), Ufone (Pakistan), Vodafone (Turkey), XL (Indonesia).

One ting worth noting is that Facebook says the app is optimized to use less data than other Java apps, making it more affordable once the free 90-day period expires.

You can download the app by visiting m.facebook.com and scrolling to the download link, or enter d.facebook.com/install directly into the mobile browser. You can also find the app in various app stores.

The myTouch 3G will be extremely customizable, unlike Apple’s iPhone. Users will be able to choose menus, wallpapers, icons, themes and skins. Will being customizable be enough to lure iPhone users away?

Has the myTouch 3G already lost to the iPhone, even before its release? Tell us what you think.

The phone will come in three colors: black, white and maroon … err… sorry, I meant distinctive "Merlot". (Why is Merlot a distinctive color?)

A new exclusive app that T-Mobile is hyping is called Sherpa. Below is some detailed info…

Created by Geodelic, Sherpa features GENIE (Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation), a learning engine that automatically customizes itself to the user’s preferences. Through behavior and user feedback, the application learns a person’s likes and dislikes, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. Seamlessly blending behavior recognition, a recommendation engine and location relevant information, this combination of learning is exclusive to Sherpa and unlike any experience currently on the market.

Below are two lists, the specs and Google services offered on the new myTouch 3G…

• 3.2-inch HVGA touch-screen
• Virtual keyboard (portrait or landscape)
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Music player (pre-installed 4GB microSD card)
• Enhanced video capabilities
   
• Google Search
• Google Maps (with Street View)
• YouTube
• Picasa
• Gmail
• Google Talk

Sure, the myTouch 3G sounds good on paper… but how, or will, it compete with the iPhone? Ali asked this question the other day, and got some pretty good feedback.

This will be the true test for T-Mobile.

If you’re interested in the myTouch 3G, T-Mobile will begin taking pre-sales on July 8th. The phone itself will be released in early August.

Out of the 65 million listeners, 25 million will be active users who tune in once a week. "As the US podcasting industry matures it is unquestionably creating a listening audience," says Paul Verna, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, Podcast Audience: Seeking Riches in Niches, "And along with a larger audience comes increases in advertising spending tied to podcasts."

Because of the audience growth, U.S. spending on podcast advertising will increase to $435 million in 2012, up from $165 million in 2007.

The reason for the growth of the podcasting audience can be attributed to a number of factors. Growing awareness of podcasting along with radio’s use and promotion of the medium. In addition the ease of consumption for podcast content, more portable players and smart phones with reasonable mobile data plans.

"No one will argue that mobile devices and communication are becoming widespread," says Mr. Verna. "Even so, the majority of podcasts are actually experienced on PCs, not portable devices."