According to new data from the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) application key measurements report, nearly 8.8 million UK mobile owners used an app that connected to the internet during April 2011, with Google Maps ranking as the most accessed app with 6.4 million unique users.

In April 2011, 40 per cent of the 21.8 million UK mobile internet users accessed a connected application. Google Maps ranked as the top mobile app with 6.4 million users, reaching 73.3 per cent of all UK app users. Yahoo's Weather app ranked second with 3.6 million followed by Facebook's app with 3.5 million unique visitors. Another two apps published by Google - Google Mobile and YouTube - rounded out the top five, highlighting Google's strong position among UK mobile consumers.

An analysis of the leading operating systems among connected application users revealed that 65 per cent connected via a device running on Apple iOS. In April 2011 Google's Android OS had the second highest share among operating systems for application usage at 31 per cent. Symbian ranked third and accounted for just one per cent of connected app users.