Global smartphone sales increased 47.3% to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to market research firm Gartner. Total smartphone sales for the full year increased 58% to 472 million units and accounted for 31% of all mobile devices sold. The record sales were led by Apple’s iPhone, which sold 37 million units and helped the company capture a 23.8% market share in the fourth quarter. Apple was also the top smartphone vendor in 2011, with a 19% market share. “Western Europe an...

Global mobile data traffic is expected to increase 18-fold over the next five years to 10.8 exabytes per month according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Forecast (VNI). Cloud traffic is expected to account for 71%, or 7.6 exabytes per month, of total mobile data traffic by 2016. In 2011, cloud traffic accounted for only 45% of mobile data traffic, or 269 petabytes per month. It is projected that there will be more than 10 billion mobile Internet-connected devices in 2016, exceeding the world’s...

There’s no question that Nokia is betting big on the success of Windows Phone, and we have to admit that it has already unveiled several of the best Windows Phone handsets out there. But the Finnish phone maker is reportedly so convinced that Windows Phone will succeed that it doesn’t have a backup plan of any sort. ”Plan B is that Plan A is to succeed,” Nokia manager Victor Saeijs is said to have told Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri. We know Nokia is cooking something ...

LG recently began teasing a new smartphone that could very well make its debut during the Mobile World Congress trade show later this month. The device, dubbed the Optimus Vu, will offer a 5-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and rumor has it the phone will also come equipped with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8GB of storage, support for NFC, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, the Optimus Vu will reportedly run Android 2.3 Gingerbread instead of the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Crea...

Microsoft may be planning to launch a special bundle that includes the Nokia Lumia 800 and several accessories for $899. Citing unnamed industry sources, The Verge said the deal will kick off on February 14th and will include a Bluetooth headset, a Purity HD stereo headset and Nokia’s Play 360 wireless speaker. Microsoft will reportedly not be offering the Lumia 800 as a stand-alone product. $899 seems a bit steep to us, even considering that consumers will be getting an unlocked device and a bundle of ...

Nokia on Monday officially took the wraps off a white version of its Lumia 800 Windows Phone.  Nokia originally launched the device in black and cyan, and the white version adopts a gloss finish instead of the matte coloring of the other models. Nokia says the device will be made available later this month. “Since we began selling it late last year, the Nokia Lumia 800 has received rave reviews around the world,” said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President of Product Marketing, Nokia. “Now in white, t...

If you’re signed up for a daily deal service on your phone, odds are you’re from a high-income household. According to new data from comScore, 36.5% of U.S. phone owners who are signed up for a daily deal service have an annual income of more than $100,000. 19.6% come from households that have an annual income of between $75,000 and $100,000, 18.1% have a household income of between $50,000 and $75,000, 16.9% fall between $25,000 and $50,000, and 8.9% earn less than $25,000 per year. ComScore did ...

ASUS has confirmed that the company is planning to announce a tweaked version of its tablet-smartphone hybrid at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain, according to Modaco. The Padfone — which combines a smartphone, tablet and netbook all in one — was first unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih. The innovative device is expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4 processor. The PadFone consists of a 4.3-i...

The bathroom is a popular place to use a mobile phone according to the results of a new study. ”The writing is on the stall,” says Nicole Burdette of 11mark, the firm that conducted the survey. ”This study confirms what we all know – that the last private place is no longer private. And, that the ‘mobile-everywhere’ phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.” 63% of those surveyed said they have initiated a phone call while using the bathroom and 3...

Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm, has left HP. AllThingsD broke the news Friday afternoon, noting that Rubinstein had served his promised 12-24 month tenure with the company before leaving. “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan told AllThingsD. Rubinstein led the team responsible for the original iPod and left Apple in 2006 to eventually join Palm as CEO in 2009. While at Palm, Rubinstein was responsible for, among other projects, the develop...

BlackBerry owners tend to be older and wealthier than other smartphone users according to a new report released this week. Data from comScore Data Mine suggests BlackBerry users are “more likely to have a household greater than $75,000 when compared to average smartphone owners.” BlackBerry owners were also more likely to have at least part of all of their monthly mobile bill paid for by their employers. We’re not surprised, taking into consideration the vast number of enterprise users that ...

HTC said recently that it will focus on the quality of its top-of-the-line “Hero” smartphones moving forward instead of pumping out a large number of devices across multiple price points. “We have to get back to focusing on what made us great – amazing hardware and a great customer experience,” HTC’s UK head Phil Roberson said in an interview with Mobile Today. “We ended 2011 with far more products than we started out with. We tried to do too much… We make great phones, but it...

LG announced on Wednesday that it has sold more than 1 million Optimus LTE handsets. A version of the device landed in the United States as the Nitro HD on AT&T, although it’s unclear if that phone is figured into the count. “The combination of LTE connectivity with LG’s True HD IPS display has resonated with the public regarding the potential of LTE technology,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. LG said it sold 600,000 Optimus LTE units d...

A Microsoft spokesperson recently suggested that the Redmond-based firm is working to bring its Xbox Live games to other platforms. Microsoft’s Xbox Live titles are currently limited to the Xbox and the company’s Windows Phone mobile platform. “While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Forbes. “To satisfy that need, we are working to exte...