Nielsen has released a new mobile application report and its findings showcase not only the increase in smartphone usage, but also what applications are most popular. For its report, Nielsen surveyed more than 4,200 people who had downloaded a mobile application in the last 30 days.

The survey really highlights just how much smartphone ownership trails traditional feature phone ownership, at least in the U.S. Nielsen’s study shows that 21% of American wireless subscribers have smartphones.

Still, even non-smartphone users have heavily embraced mobile apps. Nielsen’s survey indicates that the average number of apps that a feature phone user has on his or her device is 10, while the average number of apps a smartphone user has is 22.

Broken down even further, the average number of installed apps based on smartphone OS looks like this:

• BlackBerry: 10
• iPhone: 37
• Android: 22
• Palm: 14
• Windows Mobile: 13

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Most Popular Smartphone Apps

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While the specific applications vary from platform to platform, the most popular apps across smartphones were pretty consistent in this report: Maps, weather, Facebook and music all had strong showings.

Check out this chart which breaks down the five most popular apps by smartphone OS:

It’s interesting to see just how much Facebook dominates the mobile app space; it’s one of the top five apps on each of the platforms highlighted. Still, Nielsen notes that broken down by demographic, MySpace is still very popular among teens and that LinkedIn is strong in the 25-44 demographic.

Today Google unveiled Earth View in Google Maps, a feature designed to bridge the gap between the popular map application and Google Earth.

The new view — available to those that have installedGoogle Earth — is a remarkable next step for the application and offers 3D perspective with high-resolution imagery, terrain and cityscapes. Essentially Google Maps now supports multi-dimensional world discovery in much the same way that Google Earth does.

“Earth view offers a true three-dimensional perspective, which lets you experience mountains in full detail, 3D buildings, and first-person dives beneath the ocean,” Product Manager Peter Birch wrote in a blog post. “The motion is fluid, and you can see the world from any viewpoint.”

In order to drive home the utility and power of 3D landscapes, Google has created 36 Earth View showcases of world-renowned places and wonders — think the Taj Mahal, Tower of Pisa and the Titanic — which are accessible in the left-hand menu of Google Maps.

After just a few minutes with Earth View, we’re already quite impressed. It’s not often that Google introduces an alternative way to view the world in map form, and this one’s a winner. You can play around with Earth View yourself, or watch a video demonstration of it below.