Forget the socks, nose clippers and ‘popular car show’ DVD, the must-have present for your man this Christmas is a mobile application. No, really. It is.

According to research* carried out by MobileSquared and apps developer PacketVideo men are twice as likely as women to use their smartphone applications.  But before you rush to the online store choose wisely because 90% of all applications are consigned to the rubbish bin within six months of downloading - having only been used once.

The same research found almost 8 million of us currently use a mobile application every day. Indeed, such is the popularity of the mobile app that is seems to have made the north/south divide a thing of the past – at least in mobile terms where both regions feature similar numbers of app users (7 million). The poor cousin of the UK apps map appears to be the Midlands where usage is 38 per cent lower than its closest neighbours.

According to PacketVideo’s Angela Scheller, VP Twonky Products, “Users are demanding more from their mobile apps as they become more savvy in their usage, so it’s important that they provide them with functionality and integration into their everyday activities. Applications that are gimmicky simply won’t be used more than once in their lifetime.”

There are more than 19 million smartphones in the UK today, a figure set to grow over 34 million by 2012. While the iPhone leads the way in 2010, by the end of 2012 the number of Android devices in the UK will have overtaken Apple’s sector defining mobile, according to MobileSquared.

According to Nick Lane from MobileSquared: “It’s no secret that more and more manufacturers are creating Android mobile devices which have come a long way in terms of driving mobile application development for this sector. In just a few years we will see Android devices increase their market share considerably, and by up to 460%.”

Under their consumer software line Twonky, PacketVideo recently launched the new Twonky Mobile Android application, which lets users share and play media directly from their mobile phone. The Twonky application streams personal and online media from the Android phone to any device that is connected to the internet, giving users access to all of their media without the need for cables.

Twonky Mobile will remember the user’s preferences for each network and automatically identifies which network the user has connected to and which devices they prefer to use most frequently.  The application’s auto-copy feature means that users can select to have all of their media files automatically copied from their phone to their PC or MAC.

Twonky Mobile for Android is available today in the Android Store and will be free for a limited time only.

*The research looked into the behaviour of 4,500 smartphone users in Europe.