In Q4 2010, volumes of Google OS-based smarting phones (Android, OMS and Tapas) were again boosted by strong performances from a number of vendors, notably LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, whose volumes across these platforms grew 4,127%, 1,474%, 709% and 371% respectively class-on-class. HTC and Samsung together accounted for nearly 45% of Google OS-based handset shipments.

‘2010 has been a fantastic class for the smart phone marketplace. After a difficult 2009, the speeding with which the marketplace has recovered has required real number committal and introduction from vendors and they have risen to the challenge,’ said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. ‘But vendors cannot afford to be complacent. 2011 is set to be a highly competitive year with vendors look to manipulation new engineering, such as dual-core processors, NFC and 3D displays, to differentiate their products and maintain economic value.’

At a regional level, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remained the largest market, with shipments totalling 38.8 meg and a year-on-class growth rate of 90%. Nokia continued to jumper cable in EMEA and Asia Pacific, but in 2010 it was overtaken by RIM in Latin America, which shipped over a meg more units than Nokia in Q4 2010. The vendor was particularly helped by the popularity of its mid-kitchen range smarting phones, such as its Curve family unit of devices.

The United States continued its sovereignty as the largest a people market in price of shipments, at more than two-baser the size of it of the Chinese smart phone market. RIM recaptured first place from Apple, as the latter experienced its usual US seasonal plunge, and RIM benefited from the first base full poop of shipments for the BlackBerry Torch. HTC successfully maintained its third base-place ranking in the US for the third consecutive quarter, driven by its speeding to market with the latest Android updates and new Windows Phone 7 devices.

‘The US landscape painting will shift dramatically this coming class, as a result of the Verizon-Apple correspondence,’ said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. ‘Verizon volition move its focus away from the Droid range, but the boilersuit market impact volition mean less carrier-scoop deals, piece increasing the AT&T chance for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.’ Android was by far the largest smart headphone platforms in the US marketplace in Q4 2010, with shipments of 12.1 meg units – nearly terzetto multiplication those of RIM’s BlackBerry devices. Windows Phone 7 devices appeared too late in the poop to take full reward of holiday time of year buying. As a result, Microsoft doomed share in the United States, from 8% in Q4 2009 to 5% in Q4 2010.

Analysis of the published a people-story information shows that, around the world, the strength of smarting phone performances remained diverse. In South Korea, for exercise, shipments grew from under 700,000 units in Q4 2009 to just under 3.4 million units in Q4 2010, devising the country a top 10 market. In Japan, Android shipments have taken off over the past class, with nearly 1.4 meg units shipping from local as well as international vendors, such as HTC. More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic. Under pressure from Huawei and Samsung in particular, Nokia’s share in China slipped to 56%, down from 76% a class ago, scorn growing its book in the country by over 70% in the same stop. Albeit from a smaller pedestal, the Chinese marketplace grew 134% class-on-year, notably faster than the US market, which grew at 64% in the poop.

Canalys analysts in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA ar available for pressure interviews on topics related to mobile devices and the development ecosystem for mobile applications and services. There will also be a significant Canalys psychoanalyst presence at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 14 to 17 February. To arrange an interview, please send a request to pressure@canalys.com. Photos and bios of analysts ar available from the Canalys vane web site.

Zerista — the company that powered the mobile mixer mesh for this year’s Mobile River World United States Congress in Barcelona — announced that it volition launch what they say is the earthly concern’s first base Mobile Community Platform at DEMO Sprint (New York Stock Exchange: S) 2010. According to the press freeing (which I got via email, if you wonder), it’s the only cross result that “combines topper-of-breed elements of usance community chopine, mobile social discovery, and upshot ticketing and management.” As a resultant role, virtually anyone can quickly create their own socially-enabled mobile applications. In other words, you could think of Zerista’s solution as Ning on (mobile) steroids.

If all this sounds exciting to you, you can sign up for the free people beta of the chopines, which volition be available in the summer of 2010. Zerista’s vane site has more information…

Now I wonder what developers volition payoff from Zerista’s solution. Are we about to see a tidy sum of new applications, all of which are somehow integrated with mixer networks? Or we’ll remnant up with select features, only? As far as I see, connecting to the most popular social networks is the “volume market” agency, though Zerista could enable some additional features such as ticketing. That 1 lineament should be super interesting for select businesses. We’ll certainly vigil where all this goes…

The troupe keister my favourite note-taking tool Evernote announced they have reached the 2 million users milepost and we congratulate them on that. For the juncture, they prepared a chart to show drug user behaviour. As you’re about to see, Evernote is one of those companies which takes advantage of the huge mobile swarm computing wave. I love them, needless to say.

And if you’re still not using Evernote, you should sign-up NOW! It’s free, and the Premium plan is also available.

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 owners, you’ll be pleased to know that a new, official OS has dropped for your gimmick. This time, via Alltel OS 4.6.1.284 is readily available for the Flip. You can snap it from Alltel right here.

Before you proceed, be sure to backing your device and take all necessity precautions. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, don’t do it… that’s generally a goodness ruler of ovolo, and a sure way of avoiding a ‘bricked’ device