Android impressions, on both mobile phones and tablets, grew 48 percent month-over-month, according to a new study by Millennial Media.

The company combined connected devices and smartphones when looking at the operating system impression share. For example, iOS includes the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

“For the first time, we combined connected devices and smartphones when breaking down the impression share by operating system,” said Mack McKelvey, vice president of Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.

“Including connected devices like the iPad, iPod Touch and BlackBerry Playbook, helped give us a really comprehensive view of the current OS landscape,” she said.

OS landscape
In the study, Android had the top spot with a 54 percent share, iOS came in second with a 28 percent share and RIM followed with a 13 percent share.

In addition, the study also found that Windows Phone 7 impressions increased 48 percent month-over-month.

Feature phones accounted for 14 percent of the company’s network impressions.

In August 2010, feature phones made up 33 percent of Millennial’s impressions in August last year.

Additionally, Millennial found that of all the impressions on its network, 32 percent came over Wi-Fi. Of these Wi-Fi impressions 59 percent came from smartphones – as opposed to connected devices or feature phones.

Overall, it was an 11 percent growth month-over-month.

Top spot
The study also shows that HTC reclaimed the No. 2 position in the Top 15 manufacturers chart.

In August, HTC had 5 of the top 20 phones.

Impressions from gaming apps grew 19 percent month-over-month and games remained the top individual app category on Millennial’s network.

In addition, music and entertainment app impressions grew 13 percent month-over-month and was the second leading app category on the company’s network.

In the music and entertainment category, radio apps accounted for more than half of the impressions.

“Impressions on gaming apps and music and entertainment apps both saw double digit growth in August,” Ms. McKelvey said.

“Consumers are increasingly using these kinds of apps, not only when they are on the move, but also when they are in their homes,” she said. “Engaging apps are really being used at all times of day, and we expect almost all app categories to continue growing.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York