Everyone knows that Apple’s App Store is a huge success—at the beginning of December it was announced that 300 million applications had been downloaded from the store since it had opened 5 months earlier. However, In-Stat has some figures out which suggests that it’s not that iPhone users in general buy more apps, but there’s a small cadre which over-achieve in downloading. “Strong demand is being driven by device manufacturers leveraging open OS device to re-invent the mobile phone experience,” says Frank Dickson, Vice President, Mobile Internet Group. “New and prospective smartphone buyers are drawn to new mobile applications, even though the median number of applications downloaded for all platforms, including the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone, is relatively modest—below five applications per user for each platform.” It’s not broken down further, but it seems the main difference between the iPhone and competing smartphones is the behaviour of the group of power users. (release)

Inquisitor For iPhone: Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has launched Inquisitor for the iPhone, which is similar to Search Assist. On the Mac Inquisitor plugs into Safari but on the iPhone it’s a standalone search application, and is “ridiculously fast” and opens results in an integrated browser rather than jumping to Safari, according to CNet.

iTunes App Store The Best: A report by the Global Intelligence Alliance Group cites Apple’s App Store as the best on the market, based on 5 criteria: Time to market; The ability to attract developers; The rate of device adoption; An efficient interface and user experience; Having a critical mass of attractive applications. Apple scores high in all but the “device adoption/rollout” category, and is followed by Android and Ovi. Windows Mobile has the most number of apps available—more than 20,000—but they’re scattered over a large number of stores. “One oversight by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) was not consolidating the distribution channels for mobile applications at an earlier stage. Now, the landscape is very fragmented with multiple sites and providers offering applications for Windows Mobile based phones.” Palm (NSDQ: PALM) came in last. (report)

iTunes At Starbucks Patent: Apple has apparently applied for a patent on the idea of a localized iTunes store at Starbucks, according to Unwired. “The basic idea described in patent app is pretty simple. Place a local cache of iTunes media store server at a retail location, e.g. Starbucks cafe,  and follow the music that is being played from that cache. Beam the associated info to the iPhones and Macbooks via local Wi-Fi network…Additional icon with store logo will appear on the iPhone. And if the customer fancies the current song, he just taps on this icon and gets all the additional about the song and an option to buy it.”